French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has blamed extremist groups for violent pro-Palestinian protests that took place last week in and near Paris.

A demonstration in the gritty northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles degenerated into violence Sunday with Jewish shops being looted and police using tear gas and rubber bullets against the crowd.

The Israeli army on Tuesday confirmed that a soldier who Hamas militants claimed they had kidnapped is dead and his body remains unaccounted for.

The army named the soldier, whose body is still missing, as Oron Shaul, two days after Hamas said they had kidnapped an Israeli soldier of the same name.

The United Arab Emirates said Monday it will offer nearly $41 million in aid for the reconstruction of Gaza homes hit by Israel's military offensive against rocket-firing militants.

Of that figure, 150 million dirhams ($40 million) was part of an agreement between Abu Dhabi and the Emirati Red Crescent and the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the Red Crescent.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo on Monday to throw his weight behind efforts to secure a ceasefire in neighboring Gaza.

Kerry will meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who is also in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials aimed at ending the two-week conflict between Israel and Gaza militants.

Eight local television networks overcame their political differences on Monday evening and aired a unified newscast in solidarity with war-battered Gaza, where at least 570 people were killed in 14 days of Israeli aggression.

"Gaza...you are not alone” was the title of the unified newscast, which got underway at 8:10 pm on all local channels. It kicked off with a tribute by renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to his homeland. His voice glorified Palestine through his famed poem “Ala Hathihi al-Ard Ma Yastaheq al-Hayat” (On this Land, There's What is Worth Living For).

Russia on Monday called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and for the international community to urgently take concerted action to stop the suffering of civilians on both sides.

"The new dangerous cycle of violence has shown with absolute clarity the need for a ceasefire," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement as the United States and the United Nations demanded an immediate ceasefire.

Turkey on Monday declared three days of national mourning for the Palestinian victims of Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip, denouncing the assault as a "massacre."

"We condemn Israel's massacre of the Palestinian people," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters in Ankara in televised comments after a cabinet meeting as the Palestinian death toll topped 500. 

French President Francois Hollande Monday called for urgent measures to stop the suffering in Gaza after a phone conversation with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

"Everything must be done to put an immediate end to the suffering of the civil population in Gaza," a statement from Hollande's office said.

With 18 soldiers killed in Gaza, the highest military casualty toll in eight years, Israel is in mourning, but has vowed to pursue its mission against Hamas militants.

Thirteen of them were killed on Sunday alone, making it the bloodiest single day for the army since the 2006 war in Lebanon, with the press branding it "a "dark day".

Some 500 people on Monday staged a silent protest in Tokyo against the bloodshed in Gaza, the biggest such gathering in the Japanese capital since the violence began early this month, organizers said.

As night fell demonstrators holding candles formed huge letters spelling "Gaza" in a city park, and offered a one-minute prayer for victims of the violence in the Palestinian territory.