A cabinet statement called for international intervention, humanitarian help for the people of Gaza and denounced what it called "world silence in the face of the magnitude of crimes committed".

By early yesterday, Israeli troops had killed 53 Palestinians since Tuesday night when more than 100 Israeli tanks, backed by aircraft, moved into the northern Gaza Strip to try to stop militants firing homemade rockets into Israeli territory.

The Israelis labelled the massive incursion "Operation Days of Penitence".

Officials said Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei had cancelled a trip to Russia and Turkey to attend an emergency cabinet session later in the day.

The cabinet called on the international quartet that drafted a now moribund Middle East peace plan last year to "intervene immediately to ensure the protection of our people."

The quartet consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Both Washington and Moscow yesterday called for restraint by the Israeli military, a call apparently falling on deaf ears.

Spain, Switzerland, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Canada all expressed concern at the continuing violence.

Palestinian security sources said Israeli gunfire killed a Palestinian early on Saturday at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Mohammed al-Hashash, 63, was killed near his home during an Israeli incursion, the sources added.

Two Palestinians died and four were wounded in an Israeli air raid on the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip overnight, Palestinian security officials said.