Israeli defence officials said that at least one soldier succumbed to his wounds, sustained during a cross border firing.

Hamas, however, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that it has inked a ceasefire agreement with Israel, confirmation of which is yet to be made by the latter.

"With Egyptian and United Nations efforts it has been agreed to return to the era of calm between (Israel) and Palestinian factions," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters. 

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Israeli military said that it struck "... 60 sites in 3 Hamas battalion compounds. The targets included weapon manufacturing sites, a shaft to a tunnel network, a factory used for underground infrastructure manufacturing, a UAV warehouse, military operations room, training facilities, and observation posts."

It also said that three missiles were fired into Israel by Palestinian militants.

The country is presently witnessing a 17-week-long protests by Palestinians at the border.

According to Gaza officials, at least 130 Palestinians have died, while, 15,000 have sustained injuries during this period.

Following Friday's incident, the UN has urged both the sides to step back from the brink of war.

"Everybody understands that unless the situation is defused we will very quickly be back to another confrontation," said Nickolay Mladenov, UN's envoy for the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

"I expect all parties, all sides to do their best right now. Not next month, not next week, right now, to prevent this escalation," he said.

Mladenov has also urged the militants to stop its attacks against Israel and aggravate the already worsening situation.

Directing his anger towards Hamas, in a strong-worded statement, Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "If Hamas continues to fire rockets then Israel will respond in a much tougher way than they think."

Image: twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson