German FM To Travel To Middle East Amid Israeli-Palestinian Conflicts

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will travel to the Middle East on Monday and talk with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported on Sunday, Xinhua reported.



A spokeswoman of the German Foreign Ministry has confirmed to Xinhua that Steinmeier would stay in the Middle East from July 14 to 15.



After three Israeli teenagers were believed kidnapped and later found slain, a teen from the Gaza Strip was believed abducted and slain, touching off rounds of armed retaliation between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement controlling the Gaza Strip.



In his comments to Bild am Sonntag published on Sunday, Steinmeier called for an immediate end to the violence between Israel and Hamas, urging a "coalition of reason" to stop the conflict escalating in the region.



Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra told reporters on Sunday that the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 166, more than two third of whom were civilians, and over 1,000 Palestinians were injured during the last seven days of the conflicts.