Eu 'Regrets' Collapse Of Ceasefire İn Gaza

The European Union has expressed "regret" over the collapse of the declared 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza.



The comments by Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for the EU's diplomacy Chief, Catherine Ashton, came in a daily briefing in Brussels on Friday, hours after both sides in the conflict blamed each other for the collapse of the humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which began at 8 a.m. locally (05: 00 GMT).



She said: "We have been calling for this ceasefire consistently ... we regret that it has not really been put in place.



"We will make all the efforts to broker this deal and hope very much that we will see the ceasefire in place."



Kocijancic said the EU believed it was absolutely necessary the truce be put in place and respected in order to bring an end the loss of civilian lives.



She said that EU would "follow developments very closely".



The ceasefire, which had been declared by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, was aimed at helping Palestinian civilians to stock up on food.



The truce came after 25 days of relentless Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed at least 1,458 Palestinians – mostly civilians – and injured more than 8,300 others.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara