Brussels  - The European Union's top foreign-policy official on Saturday condemned as "unacceptable" the death of Palestinian civilians in Israeli air-strikes and called for an end to violence.

"The current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians and will only worsen the humanitarian crisis as well as complicate the search for a peaceful solution," EU High Representative Javier Solana said in a statement.

"I call for an immediate cessation of military actions on both sides. The EU has repeatedly condemned rocket attacks against Israel," the statement said.

Solana's comment came hours after the French government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year, condemned a series of rocket attacks on Israel launched from the Gaza Strip as an "unjustifiable provocation" and the Israeli response as "disproportionate."

And it followed a call from EU Foreign-Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner for both sides to "exercise the utmost restraint, and to stop the escalation of violence which endangers the civilian population (and) to return immediately to the ceasefire."

The EU sees Israel as one of its most important foreign partners, but is the largest donor of aid to the Palestinian territories, giving it a keen interest in seeing stability in the region.

Recently, the bloc has highlighted Israel's closure of the key crossings into and out of Gaza as exacerbating the already difficult situation in the strip.

"There is no military solution to the situation in Gaza ... Passages in and out of Gaza should be reopened to allow humanitarian and regular commercial flows," Solana's statement said. (dpa)