Cairo, Egypt (BBN)-Talks in Cairo aimed at securing a fresh ceasefire in Gaza are under renewed strain, with both sides in the conflict issuing warnings.
Palestinian negotiators said they would leave on Sunday if Israel did not attend without preconditions, reports BBC.
Israel insists it will not return until militant rocket fire from Gaza ends.
The UK, France and Germany issued a statement calling on Israel and Hamas to agree a new truce, after last week’s 72-hour ceasefire was not renewed.
That ceasefire ended on Friday morning. At least nine Palestinians were killed on Saturday as Israel launched 50 air strikes, Gaza health officials said.
And on Sunday, at least one person was killed in the central town of Deir al-Balah in an Israeli strike, Gaza officials said.
The Israeli air force has struck 25 Gaza targets since midnight on Sunday, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reports. The Israeli air force has hit 20 targets in Gaza overnight, Israeli news reports say.
At least 1,960 people have died since violence erupted in Gaza in early July.
More than 1,900 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the UN.
Sixty-seven people have died on the Israeli side, including three civilians.
There is an Israeli cabinet meeting due in the next hour or so, and top of the agenda will be whether to resume the talks in Cairo, says the BBC’s Wyre Davies in Jerusalem.
There is an acknowledgement on both sides that it is perhaps time to put an end to the fighting, but as long as the rocket fire continues, as long as Israel bombs targets in Gaza, that is unlikely, our correspondent adds.
‘CRUCIAL 24 HOURS’
Israeli negotiators have already left Egypt and said they would not return to the indirect negotiations until rocket fire from Gaza stopped.
The Jerusalem Post quoted senior Israeli officials as saying that if rocket fire continued, “all options” were on the table, not just air strikes.
Communications Minister Gilad Erdan told Israel’s Channel 2 that “a wide ground incursion and the toppling of Hamas is being discussed”.
Hamas deputy chief Mussa Abu Marzuq accused Israel of stalling and said the next 24 hours would decide the fate of the Cairo talks.
JOINT STATEMENT
Earlier, the foreign ministers of France, Laurent Fabius, of the UK, Philip Hammond, and of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said that the only way to resolve the conflict was through talks.
“We call upon all parties immediately to return to a ceasefire. We fully support the ongoing efforts by Egypt to this end,” they said in a joint statement.
“To be sustainable, a ceasefire must envisage steps to address both Israeli security concerns and Palestinian requirements regarding the lifting of restrictions on Gaza,” they added.
Earlier, the US and the United Nations issued a similar call for a ceasefire.
Hamas said Israel had failed to meet its key demands, including the lifting of the Gaza blockade and the release of prisoners. It also rejected Israel’s call for the demilitarisation of Gaza.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters marched through London, Paris and Cape Town in what organisers called a “Day of Rage” against Israeli military action in Gaza.
About 150 protesters also held a demonstration in Tel Aviv despite Israeli authorities banning the gathering.
Palestinian health officials said at least nine people died in several separate air strikes on Saturday.
Israel said it killed four Hamas militants, including one senior leader.
Israel said more than 70 rockets had been fired from Gaza since the end of the ceasefire.
Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July with the stated aim of halting rocket fire from militants in Gaza and destroying the network of tunnels it said were used by militants to launch attacks inside Israel.
BBN/ANS-10Aug14-4:30pm (BST)