EU presses Israel, Hamas to agree humanitarian truce

The European Union is pressing Israel and Hamas tonight to accept a 48-hour cessation of violence to allow humanitarian aid into…

The European Union is pressing Israel and Hamas tonight to accept a 48-hour cessation of violence to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, after four days of Israeli air attacks and rocket fire by Hamas.

Medical officials put Palestinian casualties since Saturday at 383 dead and more than 800 wounded. A United Nations agency said at least 62 of the dead were civilians. In all, four Israelis have been killed since the operation began.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner called tonight for a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as pressure built on Israel.

"We hope for a permanent ceasefire," Mr Kouchner told TF1 television on the sidelines of a meeting in Paris of European Union foreign ministers called to discuss the violence in Gaza.

France, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until tomorrow, has proposed a 48-hour ceasefire to allow aid into the Gaza Strip.

Israel, which launched the strikes in retaliation against rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled area, has said it is willing to consider ways to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

An Israeli government official said Mr Kouchner spoke to Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak by telephone and proposed a 48-hour truce to allow in aid.

"We want to see convoy after convoy of humanitarian support and we are willing to work closely with all relevant international parties to facilitate that goal," Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said.

But he added: "At the same time, it is important to keep the pressure up on Hamas, not give them a respite, time to regroup and reorganise."

Earlier, Hamas official Mushir al-Masri said: "We are not begging for calm and there is no room to talk about calm amid the continued aggression and siege." Hamas has said a ceasefire must be accompanied by a lifting of Israel's Gaza blockade.

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Foreign ministers from the quartet of Middle East peace brokers consulted by telephone today on how to end the crisis in Gaza, US and UN officials said.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana were on the conference call, said the officials, who gave no details on the content of the call or whether a plan was agreed upon to end violence.

Despite winter rain, which could impede a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes carried out attacks on Hamas target for a fourth day, killing 12 Palestinians. They included sisters aged four and 11.

Rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck outside the Israeli towns of Kiryat Malachi and Rahat, a Bedouin community near the southern city of Beersheba, areas 30 kilometres from the territory and which had not been attacked before.

There were no reports of casualties inside Israel. A day earlier three Israelis were killed by rockets. Israel said its air strikes are aimed at ending such attacks.

According to internal Israeli assessments, the air offensive has destroyed a third of the Hamas rocket arsenal, Israel's Channel 10 television reported.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in fighting in June 2007. It has rejected international demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals.

"None of us can say how long it will take," Israeli President Shimon Peres said after being briefed at the Defence Ministry about Israel's deadliest campaign in the Gaza Strip since the 1967 Middle East war. 

Many of the EU's 27 governments have already called for an end to hostilities in Gaza, with some condemning Israeli attacks. But the traditionally pro-Israel Czech Republic, which takes over the EU's six-month rotating presidency on January 1st, defended Israel's strikes today.

A separate proposal, under discussion by Turkey and Egypt, as well as by several Arab governments, calls for a ceasefire and reopening of Gaza's crossings with Israel, diplomats said. Israel has said it has yet to be approached formally about the idea.

"Any truce proposals, to be credible, must include guarantees about how it will be imposed on Hamas," an Israeli government said.

"We are living in horror, we and our children. The situation is not just bad, it is tragic," said Gaza resident Abu Fares, standing outside his home, near the rubble of a building bombed overnight.

Israeli media quoted Mr Olmert as saying the Gaza offensive, launched by his centrist government six weeks before an election that opinion polls predict the right-wing Likud party will win, was in "the first of a several stages".

In Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, two sisters were killed in an air raid near their home, medical workers said. The area has been a launching ground for cross-border rocket attacks.

Later a security man was killed in a strike on a headquarters in Khan Yunis and Israeli missiles destroyed five ministerial buildings and a structure belonging to the Islamic University in Gaza City.

A Hamas sports centre and two training camps belonging to the group were also destroyed in the attacks, which plunged Gaza into a blackout as explosions echoed across the city.

Most Gazans in the territory of 1.5 million people, one of the most densely populated on earth, have stayed home, in rooms away from windows that could shatter in blasts from air strikes on Hamas facilities.

Israel declared areas around the Gaza Strip a "closed military zone", citing the risk from Palestinian rockets, and ordered out journalists observing a build-up of armoured forces.

Israel has said it would allow more aid trucks into Gaza. Dozens of trucks loaded with goods were seen heading to Gaza crossings this morning.

Reuters