Palestinian patients react as they sit at a hall of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, after the building was hit by an Israeli army shelling today, killing five people and wounding at least 70
AFP
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal issued a joint appeal for an end to "Israeli aggression" in Gaza during talks in Doha on Monday.
Meeting for the first time since the start of the Israeli assault on Gaza on July 8, the two men also called for Israel to lift its blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory.
They "underlined the necessity of an end to the Israeli aggression and a lifting of the blockade", chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
He said the two men also "decided to hold further consultations with different Palestinian factions and contacts" on ceasefire efforts.
Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior official in Abbas's Fatah party, is to travel to Egypt, which last week proposed a ceasefire plan supported by the Arab League but rejected by Hamas, Erakat said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived Monday in Cairo, where US Secretary of State John Kerry was also due later the same day, as international efforts to secure a ceasefire gathered pace.
Hamas has demanded the release of scores of prisoners from Israeli jails, the reopening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza.
"These are not conditions but engagements that Israel must honour," Erakat said.
Kerry to push for 'immediate' Gaza ceasefire: Obama
US Secretary of State John Kerry is to push for an "immediate" ceasefire in Gaza when he arrives later Monday in Cairo, President Barack Obama said.
Obama also said that while Israel has the right to defend itself against a barrage of Hamas rockets, Washington has "serious concerns about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives."
"That is why it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a ceasefire that ends the fighting and that can stop the deaths of innocent civilians, both in Gaza and in Israel," he said.
Kerry was headed to Egypt, which has been a mediator in past Israel-Palestinian conflicts and has taken the lead in trying to broker a truce between Israel and its Islamist foe Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip.
The two-week conflict has dramatically escalated in recent days, with Israeli ground forces pushing into Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll stood at 548 as of late Monday.
Obama noted that Israel had "already done significant damage to Hamas's terrorist infrastructure in Gaza."
Eighteen Israeli soldiers have also died, the army's worst death toll in years.
