Israel stops Gaza attacks as death toll rises

Occupied Jerusalem:Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said on Tuesday that "Israeli aggression" against Gaza would end later in the day, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

"President Mohamed Mursi announced that the farce of Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip will end on Tuesday," MENA said, quoting public remarks made by the country's head of state after the funeral of his sister.

"The efforts to conclude a truce between the Palestinian and Israeli sides will produce positive results in the next few hours," he was quoted as saying. Egypt has been trying to mediate a truce to end the conflict.

Earlier, a rocket blast was heard in Occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday as Israel said it halted a threatened Gaza ground offensive to give Egyptian-led truce talks a chance.

The rocket landed in an open area near Occupied Jerusalem, witnesses said. No casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, top diplomats flew in to Cairo for a meeting aimed at boosting efforts to end nearly a week of cross-border violence.

The move came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged both Israel and Gaza fighters to stop their fire "immediately" as he held talks in Cairo aimed at securing a deal between the Jewish state and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

And US officials said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would break away from an Asia visit to travel to Cairo, Jerusalem and Ramallah, with West Bank sources saying she was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday.

After the first night without Palestinian deaths since Israel launched its relentless bombing campaign on November 14, the toll rose to 116 on Tuesday morning when another six people were killed, including a 15-year-old boy who was trying to catch birds, medics said.

Arab League chief Nabil Al Arabi was expected to arrive in war-torn Gaza at the head of a 12-strong delegation of ministers for the latest in a string of top-level solidarity visits.

On Monday, an Israeli aircraft struck crowded areas in the Gaza Strip, driving up the Palestinian death toll to 100 and devastating several homes belonging to one clan — the fallout from a new tactic in Israel’s six-day-old offensive meant to quell Hamas rocket fire on Israel.

Escalating its bombing campaign, Israel on Sunday began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic group that rules Gaza. These attacks have led to a sharp spike in civilian casualties, killing 26 civilians in just under two days and doubling the number of civilians killed in the conflict, a Gaza health official said.

Hamas fighters, meanwhile, have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in the current round of fighting, including 75 on Monday, among them one that hit an empty school.

Twenty rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile battery, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Rockets landed in open areas of Beersheva, Ashdod, Asheklon. Schools in southern Israel have been closed since the start of the offensive on Wednesday.

Overall, the offensive that began Wednesday killed 96 Palestinians, including 50 civilians, and wounded some 720 people, Gaza heath official Ashraf Al Kidra said. Among the wounded were 225 children, he said.

On the Israeli side, three civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded. An Israeli rocket-defence system has intercepted hundreds of rockets bound for populated areas.

In Monday’s violence, a missile struck a three-story home in the Gaza City’s Zeitoun area, flattening the building and badly damaging several nearby homes. Shell-shocked residents searching for belongings climbed over debris of twisted metal and cement blocks in the street.

The strike killed three adults and a two-year-old boy, and wounded 42 people, Al Kidra said.