"The Zionist enemy acknowledges that four of its troops were killed and 10 wounded in a Qassam shelling in Eshkol," said a statement from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

Israeli public radio and Channel 10 television confirmed the attack, claiming that all the casualties were civilians.

Meanwhile, an Israeli missile has hit a compound housing Gaza's largest hospital.

It struck a building close to the main gate of Shifa hospital in Gaza City, causing casualties, Palestinian police and medics said.

Moments later, a doctor at the city's main hospital said seven children had been killed while playing in a playground in a Gaza City refugee camp by a separate Israeli missile.

A Palestinian official said 10 people in total were killed in the strike on a park, hiking the Palestinian death toll from Israel's 21-day aggression to 1,047.

The attacks came less than an hour after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon likened the conflict to a "manmade hurricane", saying "whole neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble".

RA/NJF