PARIS (AFP) — European Union foreign ministers meeting in Paris on Tuesday are to appeal for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, officials said.
The EU has so far been divided in a response. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has squarely blamed Hamas for the violence, while Paris and London have called for both sides to halt their attacks.
In what will almost certainly be France's last act before the rotating EU presidency passes to the Czech Republic, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was to invite his 26 European colleagues to issue a joint demand for a truce, his ministry said.
The ministers will call for an immediate halt to both Israeli strikes and Hamas rocket attacks, according to a Paris-based diplomat.
The EU could also propose measures to help calm tempers, including a revival of a suspended EU observer mission to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the official said.
Egypt has temporarily opened the checkpoint to allow wounded Palestinians out of Gaza, but Europe would like to oversee a more permanent arrangement to allow in aid and end the Hamas-controlled territory's isolation.
With the agreement of the two sides, EU observers could oversee the reopening of the border to normal traffic and end the siege, which exacerbated the humanitarian situation even before the recent fighting.
This mission could eventually extend to Israel's closed border crossings with the Palestinian enclave, in order to build trust and persuade Israel to scale back its own blockade, the diplomat said.
The ministerial meeting was to begin at 6.30pm (1730 GMT) at the French foreign ministry, and be followed by a joint communique, officials said.
On Sunday, France and other EU members supported a UN Security Council non-binding statement calling for "an immediate halt to all violence" in Gaza and urging the parties "to stop immediately all military activities."
But Hamas has kept up firing rockets into Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the four-day-old bombardment of Gaza was the "the first of several stages" of the offensive.
The blitz has killed at least 360 Palestinians and wounded 1,690, according to medics. At least 57 of the dead are civilians, according to the UN.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 250 rockets into Israel from Gaza since Saturday, killing four people -- three civilians and one soldier -- and wounding several dozen others, according to Israeli medics.
On Monday, France renewed its own appeal for a ceasefire, and offered to increase its own shipments of aid to Gaza's beleaguered and overcrowded population of 1.5 million Palestinians.
"France and the European Union, who are already the major humanitarian and economic donors to the population of Gaza, are ready to increase their aid in response to the emergency," said foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.
The crisis erupted on December 19 when a six-month old ceasefire between Hamas and Israel expired. The Palestinian group refused to renew the truce, and stepped up rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets.
In response, Israeli bombers and attack helicopters pounded Hamas targets in Gaza, and tanks and armoured personnel carriers have massed on its border.
On Monday, Defence Minister Ehud Barak declared that Israel was in an "all-out war" with Hamas and deputy army chief Brigadier General Dan Harel vowed that not a single Hamas building would be left standing.
The United States has supported Israel's right to defend itself, but did not oppose the carefully-worded UN Security Council resolution calling for a truce.
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