Gaza peace talks continue

Speaking early on the third day of a 72-hour ceasefire, Israeli Communications Minister Gilad Erdan told Israel Radio on Thursday that the army would respond to any rocket fire from Palestinian militants with force.

"The army would then resume operations and I think more decisively ," he said. "We are taking the threat seriously," he added.

This came as representatives of Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas were in Cairo for indirect talks aimed at reaching a longer-lasting truce. On Wednesday evening, an Israeli official said the Jewish state was open to the idea of extending the truce beyond Friday morning, when the current ceasefire expires. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said an extension was not under discussion, according to the DPA news agency.

Lieberman calls on Germany to step up

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, meanwhile, called on Germany and the European Union to send inspectors to Gaza.

"The Germans, as a politically leading nation in Europe, must take on a decisive role in the Gaza conflict," Lieberman told the German mass-circulation daily, Bild. He added that Germany needed to bring European Union member states together to come up with a solution in order to avoid an escalation of the violence.

This followed a report on Wednesday that Germany, Britain and France were considering reactivating an EU mission on Gaza's border with Egypt to monitor the flow of goods into the Palestinian territory. The EU Border Assistance Mission was launched in 2005 to monitor the Rafah border crossing after Israeli pulled its troops out of Gaza, but it was discontinued two years later after Hamas seized power in the coastal territory.

UN boss calls for humanitarian aid

Late on Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to help rebuild Gaza and provide humanitarian aid to ease the suffering of the territory's 1.8 million inhabitants. However, he also said such efforts would ultimately be futile if the two sides failed to reach a lasting peace.

Do we have to continue like this?" Ban said in an address to the General Assembly. "Build, destroy and build and destroy?"

"We will build again, but this must be the last time to rebuild," he said. "This must stop now. They must go back to the negotiating table."

US President Barack Obama said any peaceful solution must allow Gaza to escape its isolation.

"Long-term, there has to be a recognition that Gaza cannot sustain itself permanently closed off from the world and incapable of providing some opportunities - jobs, economic growth - for the population that lives there," he told reporters at the end of an Africa nations summit in Washington. He also criticized Hamas, describing the militant group as being "extraordinarily irresponsible."

pfd/rc (dpa, AP, Reuters)