French President Nicolas Sarkozy last night called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip �as soon as possible� during a peacemaking mission to the Middle East.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy last night called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip "as soon as possible" during a peacemaking mission to the Middle East.
After talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Mr Sarkozy left for Israel and the Palestinian territories where he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to Hamas in June 2007.
Sarkozy, said he would tell Israeli leaders that the violence in Gaza must stop and that Hamas rocket attacks were "unpardonable and unforgivable".
The Israeli government feels it can impose an international settlement on Gaza that would leave Hamas isolated. Kadima party leader, Livni and defence minister and Labour leader, Ehud Barak, want to ride the wave of public support for the war into an election against their hard-line rival, former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Against that background outsiders from Europe could not make an effective intervention while the battle raged around Gaza city.
US President Elect Barack Obama remained wholly silent on the crisis in keeping with established protocol that the US has only one president at a time. Ten days on since Israel launched a military blitz on Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza, the chances of an immediate ceasefire looked remote.
The former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is the representative of the quartet of the US, the UN, Russia and the EU, was said to be working the phones.
In the flurry of diplomacy Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said European monitors that were once at Gaza's border with Egypt would be ready to return to work at the crossing after a cease-fire in Gaza is achieved. Other EU officials and the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, France and Sweden also met yesterday with President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheik.
The EU delegation is seeking humanitarian aid to Palestinians and wants to work out the conditions for a possible cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU external relations commissioner, said the delegation would like to get the hospitals in Gaza working properly but an immediate cease-fire is needed.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was focusing his efforts on helping the situation in Gaza rather than getting involved in a "blame game".
The spokesman said the Prime Minister's key priorities were an immediate ceasefire - including a halt to rocket-firing into Israel - a resolution of the problem of arms-smuggling into Gaza, and opening the borders.
Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, joined the calls for a diplomatic solution to the Gaza conflict that would include an immediate cease-fire, a halt to rocket attacks by Hamas and the opening of border crossings into the Palestinian territory.
As the Palestinian Territory teetered on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, Save the Children warned that basic humanitarian supplies are running out. The agency called for aid to be let in to the stricken area and said that 50,000 children were already suffering from chronic malnutrition. "We need to deliver more food and blankets to ensure that children do not die of hunger and cold," Dominic Nutt of Save the Children added.
More than 2000 families were displaced prior to the launch of the ground offensive on Saturday with charities expecting the number to increase significantly as fighting escalates.
