Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israeli soldiers fought heavy battles with local militants early Tuesday as ground troops on Gaza City's outskirts pushed deeper into a southern neighbourhood.

Israeli fighter jets and helicopters also carried out dozens more attacks during the night, most of them as they were providing air support to the ground troops against Palestinian militants confronting them, a military spokesman in Tel Aviv said.

A total of 60 targets were struck, including more smuggling tunnels and a hotel in the north of the Strip in which militants had gathered and were planning to carry out a shooting against the ground troops, he said.

Gaza/New York - The United Nations Security Council was preparing for another meeting on Tuesday while news reports said Israeli attacks on Gaza intensified overnight.

Quoting residents in Gaza City, Arab-language news network Al-Jazeera said Israeli operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip escalated considerably.

New York - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon leaves Tuesday on a week-long trip to the Middle East to seek a permanent truce to the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

He goes backed by UN Security Council Resolution 1860, adopted Thursday, which demands an "immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire."

New York  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday issued his strongest call yet to Israel and Hamas to stop the fighting and abide by a UN Security Council resolution that would ensure that relief supplies reach people in the Gaza Strip.

"All sides must stop now," Ban told a press conference at UN headquarters. He is to leave Tuesday on a visit to seven Middle East nations and Palestinian territories, ending the trip in Kuwait, where he will attend a previously scheduled Arab economic forum.

New York  - The United Nations on Monday appealed to the Israeli government to institute longer lulls in the fighting so more humanitarian assistance can be provided to the population in Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Defense Forces repeated a three-hour lull on Monday to allow dozens of trucks carrying relief supplies to enter Gaza. But John Holmes, the coordinator for UN humanitarian operations, said the lull should last 24 hours and be renewed.

"The three-hour lulls have continued but they are far from satisfactory," Holmes said at UN headquarters in New York. "The time has changed and in some occasions have caused confusion for aid agencies and the population, of course."

Jerusalem  - Israel called Monday on world leaders to "condemn, suppress and curb" anti-Semitic actions sparked by the Jewish state's current assault on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

"We have received with great concern and revulsion many reports of physical, moral, verbal and other manifestations of anti-Semitic attacks towards Jews and Israeli citizens in many parts of the world," a statement from the Foreign Ministry said.