The UN Security Council is to meet later on Wednesday to discuss the conflict in Gaza, a day after over a hundred rockets and mortar shells were fired by Palestinians and Israel launched air strikes in the region

The meeting was called by the United States in response to the worst flare-up since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire appeared to be holding in Gaza on Wednesday morning.

“Mortars fired by Palestinian militants hit civilian infrastructure, including a kindergarten," said Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

“The Security Council should be outraged and respond to this latest bout of violence directed at innocent Israeli civilians, and the Palestinian leadership needs to be held accountable for what they're allowing to happen in Gaza.”

A draft US statement calling for a condemnation of the violence has been circulated among council members.

Kuwait, which is also on the Security Council, is drafting its own plans to set up an international protection mission for Palestinians in a bid to win European support.

A vote on the Kuwaiti resolution could be held on Thursday but will almost certainly be blocked by the US, which holds a veto as a permanent member.

But AFP reported Britain and France had reservations of their own, complaining the proposals lacked detail “on the scope and objective of the proposed protection mission”.

Kuwaiti diplomats said they hoped a vote on the resolution could help demonstrate the extent to which the US has become isolated on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.