Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his concern Sunday at the escalation in fighting triggered by Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"The latest military action has sent hopes of an early cessation of hostilities receding into the distance," the minister said in a statement released in Berlin.

Steinmeier discussed the situation in separate telephone calls on Sunday with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Tel Aviv - An Israeli soldier was killed Sunday morning in a clash with Hamas in the Gaza Strip during Israel's ground offensive in the salient, an Israeli military spokesman said.

He said 31 Israeli soldiers have been wounded in the ground fighting, one of them critically, two seriously, and the rest moderately to slightly.

Medical officials in Gaza say 35 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli troops crossed into the Strip Saturday night as part of "Operation Cast Lead" against militants, and 150 have been wounded.

Cairo  - A spokesman for the militant Islamist movement Hamas called Sunday for an emergency meeting to present a united Palestinian front in the face of the Israeli ground offensive launched against the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening.

Mohammed Nazal, a spokesman for Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said on Arabic satellite channel al-Arabiya that "all national powers" should come together to meet, to decide on a united course of action, in the face of the Israeli offensive.

Tel Aviv/Gaza  - Continuing the second stage of a massive offensive against militants in the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops pushed further into the salient Sunday, battling Palestinian gunmen and cutting the enclave into two as they deployed south of Gaza City and seized control of a major traffic artery.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his concern Sunday at the escalation in fighting triggered by Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"The latest military action has sent hopes of an early cessation of hostilities receding into the distance," the minister said in a statement released in Berlin.

"There is an urgent need to work together with all our partners to see what contribution the international community can make towards creating the necessary conditions for a ceasefire," he said.

Steinmeier appealed to the warring parties to allow humanitarian supplies into to the Gaza Strip so that food and medicine can be distributed to the population.

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI Sunday called for an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops continued their ground offensive.

The head of the Catholic Church urged the thousands of believers who had gathered at St Peter's Square in the Vatican for Sunday Angelus to pray together with the patriarchs and members of the Christian church in Jerusalem for "justice and peace for the Holy Land."

"The dramatic news that reaches us from Gaza shows that the refusal of dialogue ... has resulted in an indescribable worsening of the conditions for the population ... who are once again victims of hate and war," the pontiff said.