(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Foreign Ministers from six countries began talks here at midday Saturday to try to spur on efforts to get a "lasting cease-fire" in Gaza at a time when Israel and Hamas have agreed an eight-hour hiatus in the fighting for humanitarian reasons.
US Secretary-of-State John Kerry, who was in the region these past days trying to secure commitment to a cease-fire, is chairing the talks which are being hosted by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the Foreign Ministry said here.
Foreign Ministers from Britain, Turkey, Germany, Italy and Qatar are also taking part in the effort to stop the Israeli onslaught against Gaza and stem Hamas rocket attacks against Israel. Outgoing EU High Representative Catherine Aston is also attending.
More than a thousand people, the bulk of them civilians, have died in a merciless attack by Israeli air, sea and land forces over the past 19 days and parts of Gaza have been re-occupied parts of the Palestinian Territory. Several thousand civilians have been wounded and many women and children are among the victims of what appears to be indiscriminate attacks on populated areas.
Hamas rockets have killed two Israelis and a foreign worker and the militant Palestinian body has killed some 37 Israeli soldiers in bitter fighting.
Israel says it is using "pin point" attacks against Hamas targets, but even Kerry himself refuted the precise nature of the Israeli shelling and rocket attacks.
Israel has also shelled a UN school that was being used to house Palestinian refugees. Hospitals have also been hit.
Over 100 children have died as a result of the Israeli operation and Kerry has put forward a cease-fire "framework" which Israel appears to be rejecting while Hamas says it could accept the proposal. The framework would be largely based on a plan elaborated with the Egyptians during Kerry's trip to Cairo this week.
Meanwhile, most of Saturday's participants, while acknowledging Israel's right to security and peaceful existence in the face of Hamas rocket attacks, have expressed strongly the need to stop the "attacks and massacres," in the words of French Foreign Minister Fabius.
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