UN chief to push for Gaza truce as deaths rise

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is currently on a visit to the Middle East, will meet with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to support the Egyptian-led goal of an early cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Monday.

"The secretary-general is in the region to support Egyptian-led efforts and he will be speaking to (Palestinian) President (Mahmoud) Abbas in Ramallah and with the Israeli leadership in Jerusalem," Nesirky, who is with the secretary-general on his visit to Egypt, told reporters here by telephone from Cairo.

However, Ban "is not going to Gaza," the focus of recently escalated violence between the Israelis and Palestinian militants, the spokesman said. "I'm not going to give you a precise itinerary. "

Nesirky was asked if Ban would meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin and Abbas, he replied, "He will. That's the plan. I can't tell you exactly when but that is certainly the plan."

Saying the secretary-general, his advisers and aides "are literally just off the airplane," Nesirky said they were on their way to a "working dinner" with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr.

Amr was to head a delegation of Arab foreign ministers to Gaza on Tuesday.

Ban was scheduled to meet Egyptian President Mohamed Morsiand Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil also Tuesday, Nesirky said.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza were reported to have killed since Wednesday more than 90 Palestinians and wounded as many as 700 more. Three Israelis were killed by rockets fired from Gaza.

"I think the violence that we've seen, the depth of and injuries to civilians that we've seen both in Gaza and in Israel just underscores the reason why he's (Ban) come, which is to support efforts to really reach a cease-fire that will hold as soon as possible," Nesirky said. "Obviously what we've seen in the last 24-36 hours is further bloodshed, further rockets coming out and further airstrikes and other kind of strikes that entered into Gaza."

"There have been civilian casualties, and all of that is regrettable and all of that is precisely why the secretary-general wishes to push this diplomatic effort, give his, lend his support, his diplomatic weight to these efforts that involve obviously the Egyptian president and others and of course Israeli interlocutors," the spokesman added.