Egypt says it has reached an initial deal with the International Monetary Fund that will secure a $4.8 billion loan to revive the country's ailing economy.

Ashraf el-Araby, the minister for international cooperation, said Tuesday the agreement was reached with an IMF team that has been in Cairo for weeks, negotiating a deal and discussing the government's economic program.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will leave Asia on Tuesday to visit Israel, Egypt and Ramallah, stepping up U.S. efforts to avoid a worsening of the Gaza crisis, an official said.

Clinton will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and discuss the crisis with Egyptian and Palestinian leaders, after leaving President Barack Obama's trip to Southeast Asia, said senior Obama aide Ben Rhodes.

At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday as Israeli air strikes rocked the Gaza Strip, medics in the Hamas-ruled territory said, as a rocket fired by Palestinian militants exploded near Jerusalem.

Two cameramen from Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV were among six people killed in a series of Israeli air raids on Gaza City and the north, a Hamas spokesman said.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged all sides to the Gaza conflict to immediately cease their fire, warning at a news conference in Cairo that an escalation will endanger the whole region.

"All sides must halt fire immediately," Ban said, as an Israeli military operation against rocket-firing militants in Gaza entered a seventh day, with 116 Palestinians and three Israelis killed.

Protesters in Egypt's capital clashed with police on Monday during a protest to mark a year since a five-day long street battle with security forces in which dozens of protesters were killed, witnesses said.

The clashes erupted when demonstrators tried to destroy a concrete barrier security forces had put up to end last year's fighting with activists who wanted the military rulers at the time to transfer power to a civilian government.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon arrived in Cairo on Monday to bolster Egypt-mediated efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza which officials said could end the conflict before it worsens with a possible Israeli ground invasion.

Ban will inject heavyweight impetus into the peace effort, meeting Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi before flying to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian chief Mahmoud Abbas.

Hundreds marched on Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday to mark one year since deadly clashes that left 45 people dead, piling pressure on President Mohamed Morsi to bring his predecessor's police to account.

Around 50 political parties and movements took part in the commemoration, furious that a year after the clashes on Mohammed Mahmoud street, no police officers have been held accountable for the deaths.

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said Monday his movement is committed to efforts to secure a truce with Israel, but insisted the Jewish state must lift its six-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"We are committed to a ceasefire, but Israel must stop its aggression," Meshaal said. “We don't want an escalation, because Hamas and all resistance factions are courageous but they are also rational," he added.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat noted on Monday that Palestine will remain at the heart of the conflict in the Middle East, noting that the "Arab Spring" has arrived in its territories.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anabaa magazine: “The inevitability of history proves that all peoples will earn their freedom, rights, and dignity.”

Senior U.S. Senator Carl Levin criticized Egypt's "weak" efforts Sunday to pressure its ally Hamas to reduce tensions in the bloody conflict between Gaza's Islamist rulers and their enemy Israel.

"It's pretty weak so far from what I can tell. The Egyptians have a real interest here in the region not exploding and the peace agreement continuing to be abided by," said Levin, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.