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.

The wine-red walls of the Brueghel exhibition hall at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art are now bare, like the crime scene of a daring art heist.

Tel Aviv's leading art museum, spooked by rocket attacks on Israel's cultural capital, moved nearly 200 works Friday into a rocket-proof safe the size of an auditorium — including some 100 works painted by relatives of Flemish Renaissance master Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

Israel's President Shimon Peres accused Iran Monday of encouraging the Palestinians to continue rocket attacks on Israel rather than negotiating a ceasefire, saying "they are out of their mind."

At the same time, Peres praised Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi for the constructive role he has played in the intensifying crisis.

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.

Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali commented on Monday on PM Najib Miqati's visit to France, saying that “the Lebanese cabinet is the one to decide what to do and what not to do”.

“What matters most to us is preserving Lebanese-Syrian ties and maintaining security on our border,” Ali added after meeting Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

The Army Command announced on Monday that it discovered two rockets, which were set up to be fired against Israel, in southern Lebanon.

It said in a statement that an army patrol discovered the two 107mm Grad rockets between the towns of Halta and al-Mari in the Hasbaya district.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will travel to the Middle East on Monday for talks aimed at encouraging a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants, his spokesman said.

Westerwelle will meet his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem late Monday before seeing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday.

The Israeli army on Monday took over programming at a Gaza-based Hamas television station "to broadcast warnings," as deadly violence between the sides entered its sixth day.

Al-Aqsa television, the official station of Gaza's Hamas rulers, said in a statement the Israeli army "is interfering with Al-Aqsa TV," with the picture going on and off for several hours and sometimes appearing scrambled.

China on Monday called for "maximum restraint" by all parties, especially Israel, in the Gaza Strip conflict as the death toll from air strikes on the territory rose to 87.

The statement came as Israel pushed raids against Palestinian Hamas militants into a sixth day and geared up to expand operations with a ground offensive even as international efforts to broker a ceasefire gathered pace.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour will be part of the Arab League delegation, which will visit the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in a show of support for the territory in the face of Israeli air strikes, As Safir daily reported Monday.

“The purpose of the visit is to deliver a message of solidarity and support to the Palestinian people. It is the least we can do to confront the Israeli aggression,” Mansour told the daily.