Kuwait has requested an urgent Arab foreign ministers meeting to discuss “the deteriorating situation” in the Gaza Strip, its Arab League representative says, as Israeli air strikes pound the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s aerial military campaign targeting rocket-firing militants in Gaza has killed 112 Palestinians since it began early on Tuesday.

The Arab foreign ministers’ meeting is expected to take place on Monday, an Arab League official said.

Kuwait, the current rotating president of the Arab League summit, requested the meeting “to discuss the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip,” its permanent representative to the Pan-Arab organisation, Aziz Rahim Al-Daihani, said.

The move comes as the United States said it was ready to leverage its relationships in the Middle East to try to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement ruling Gaza.

Despite international concerns, truce efforts have so far been unsuccessful, according to Egypt, which has been key in mediating previous Hamas-Israel ceasefires.

Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “no international pressure will prevent us from striking, with all force, against the terrorist organisation which calls for our destruction”.