GAZA CITY, Aug 22 (agencies): Israeli air strikes killed four Palestinians in Gaza Friday as European governments sought UN action to end more than six weeks of bloodshed.
Fighting flared anew Tuesday as Egyptian-brokered truce efforts collapsed, with Israel insistent on its demand for security from rocket fire by Gaza militants, and Hamas defiant over its call for an end to eight years of Israeli blockade.
The death toll since July 8 now stands at at least 2,087 Palestinians dead, three-quarters of them civilians according to the United Nations, and 67 on the Israeli side, nearly all of them soldiers.
A senior official of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Thursday that a total of 469 children were killed in the Gaza Strip, where the situation is "dire" because of its debilitating effect on the one million Gaza Strip inhabitants under the age of 18.
Two men aged 22 and 24 were killed in a strike on Nusseirat refugee camp early on Friday, emergency services said.
Israeli media said the government was seeking US diplomatic help to head off the European bid at the United Nations to end the violence, the deadliest since the 2005 end of the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.
Washington has wielded its veto powers at the UN Security Council repeatedly in the past on behalf of its Israeli ally.
But relations have been strained over the breakdown of US-brokered peace efforts and concerns over the scale of the civilian death toll in Gaza.
The draft presented by Britain, France and Germany came after one submitted by Jordan on behalf of the Arab League had run into US opposition.
The European text urged an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, and a lifting of the Israeli blockade.
It proposed a mechanism to monitor the ceasefire and supervise the movement of goods into Gaza to allay Israeli security concerns.
It also called for Gaza's return to the control of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority led by president Mahmud Abbas, seven years after his loyalists were driven out of the territory by the Islamists of Hams.
The text provides for the lifting of economic and humanitarian restrictions on Gaza to allow for a massive reconstruction effort.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has pledged help to rebuild Gaza but warned that it would be "for the last time" after three wars in six years.
But as the diplomatic pressure for a ceasefire intensified, Israel showed no sign of ending its deadly campaign to halt rocket fire by Gaza militants.
The security cabinet authorised the call-up of up to 10,000 army reservists in a new troop rotation, Israeli media reported.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid, regarded as one of the less hawkish members of the security cabinet, threatened further deadly attacks on Hamas commanders after three leading militants were killed in a pre-dawn strike on Thursday.
Meanwhile: Palestinian militants in Gaza City executed 18 men on Friday for allegedly helping Israel in its six-week assault on the territory, Hamas TV reported.
Six them were grabbed from among hundreds of worshippers leaving the city's largest mosque, by men in the uniform of Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, witnesses told AFP.
Another report adds: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal held a second day of talks in Qatar on Friday, a Palestinian source told AFP, as fighting continued in Gaza.
The meeting-hosted by Qatar's emir-was a "follow up" to Thursday's talks, which lasted nearly three hours, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Israel strikes kill 4 Palestinians, EU seeks new truce 469 children killed in Gaza : UN
FE Team | Published: August 23, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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