Ongoing air attacks by Israeli air forces and rocket attacks by Hamas have left at least 74 people, including 17 children, dead as violence continues and diplomats around the world attempt to avert added escalations, CNN reports.

Israeli air attacks have killed 67 people and injured nearly 400 in Gaza; all but one of the children killed were in Gaza.  Seven people in Israel have been killed in the various rocket attacks launched by Hamas in the last three days.

“Stop the fire immediately. We’re escalating towards a full-scale war,” UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland tweeted. “The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now.”

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel since Monday.  Last night, 130 rockets were aimed at Tel Aviv, forcing the city’s airport to shut down.  Israel’s Iron Dome defense system have intercepted scores of missiles coming from the Gaza region.

Israeli airstrikes have destroyed three high-rises in Gaza, the lastest being stuck Wednesday night.  Israel claimed the 14-story Al-Shorouk Tower housed Hamas intelligence operations and served as communications infrastructure for the militants.  The building is known to have housed Hamas’s satellite television network.

President Joe Biden told reporters Wednesday that his national security and defense staff were “in constant contact” with their Middle Eastern counterparts–“not just Israelis, but also everyone from the Egyptians to the Saudis to Emiratis”–in an effort to broker a cease fire.