Fresh violence in Gaza; truce efforts gather pace

An Israeli soldier was killed on the edge of the Gaza Strip yesterday in a blast claimed by militants as efforts gathered pace to broker a truce after a week of bloodletting in the Hamas-run territory.
"An Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded, including one seriously, by an explosion of a device that was set off in the path of a patrol near the security fence in the central Gaza Strip," an army spokesman said.
Witnesses reported seeing an army jeep in flames after a series of blasts around a military post near the Kissufim crossing in central Gaza.
Following the attack, Israeli troops moved into Gaza, exchanging fire with militants near the town of Deir Al-Balah. An Israeli air strike in the north of the territory killed one Palestinian and wounded another, medics said.
The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed it had blown up a military jeep near Kissufim.
The violence erupted as international efforts were gathering pace in neighbouring Egypt with the aim of brokering a truce in and around Gaza after an escalation of violence that has killed some 130 people in eight days.
British humanitarian agencies also warned on Thursday that the situation in Gaza was the worst in 40 years, urging the European Union to hold talks with Hamas and calling for an end to Israel's punishing blockade.