Obama calls for Israelis to reduce bloodshed in Gaza

US President Obama has called on Israel to dismantle tunnel networks being used by Hamas, without going into major population centres in Gaza, in an effort to reduce bloodshed in the conflict.

He told journalists at the White House: "Anybody who has been watching some of these images... should recognise the cost. You have children who are getting killed, women, defenceless, who are getting killed, you have Israelis whose lives are disrupted constantly, and living in fear."

Some 1,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died since the the latest conflict began on 8 July; while 8,400 have been injured, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Sixty-one Israeli soldiers have died, as well as three civilians in Israel.