Tel Aviv/Gaza City - Israel kept up its air, ground and sea attacks in Gaza Thursday, as its representative was heading for Cairo to debate an Egyptian truce initiative, and the UN and Germany's top diplomats were in the region to also push for a truce.

UN Secretary-General Ban ki Moon and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier were each due to hold talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Thursday, meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres, caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

While Ban was in Cairo Wednesday, Steinmeier - who called for a humanitarian ceasefire to precede a "permanent" one after landing in Tel Aviv early Thursday - in turn was due to travel to the Egyptian capital in the evening.

A dark black smog could be seen hovering over Gaza City in the morning sky, as witnesses reported heavy gunbattles in the city's southern Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood.

Palestinians reported at least seven killed during the night. The Palestinian toll on day 20 of the Israeli offensive now stands at at least 1,040 dead and some 5,000 injured, according to Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein.

An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said Israel killed or injured 35 militants during the night's fighting, mainly in air attacks directed by the ground troops. Navy gunboats also supported the ground forces, he added.

He said the Israel Air Force pounded some 70 targets overnight, including a mosque in the southern Gaza border town of Rafah, which he said was storing rockets and also served as a meeting point for rocket launching squads. Several houses of Hamas activists "storing weapons," and 14 rocket launching sites were also bombed.

Southern Israel meanwhile was relatively quiet during the night, after militants in Gaza launched 14 rockets, including six imported Grads, at cities and towns in the area the previous day.

Amos Gilad, a senior official in the Israeli Defence Ministry, was expected to present Israel's position on the Egyptian truce initiative and also hear the one presented by a Hamas delegation to Cairo the previous day.

He was heading to Cairo with instructions from Israel's trio of Olmert, Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who according to Israel's Channel 1 television channel had set aside previous differences of opinion for the time being and agreed to "give the Egyptian initiative a serious chance."

Earlier, Salah al-Bardawil, of the Hamas delegation holding the talks in Cairo, told a news conference in Cairo late Wednesday that his movement had presented to Egypt its "interpretations and vision of the main points of the Egyptian proposal."

"The movement has presented a detailed vision to the Egyptian leadership. A vision which serves Palestinians demands and needs," the Hamas official said.

While Israel and the radical Islamic movement ruling Gaza do not recognize each other, Egypt has also in the past mediated an indirect, informal truce between the two parties.

Israel wants different terms for a new truce, as the previous one fell apart in early November, as Hamas militants revenged an Israeli operation to uncover a huge tunnel under the Gaza border which Israel said was dug to capture soldiers from its territory, and Israel in turn responded by re-closing its borders.

The UN General Assembly meanwhile was scheduled to meet Thursday to debate the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza Strip, a move requested by the Non-Aligned Movement. (dpa)