Tel Aviv/Gaza - The Israel Air Force bombed and rocketed Gaza for the third day running Monday, hitting some 40 targets overnight of the Islamic Hamas movement that rules the area, the Israeli military said.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed since the massive air campaign, codenamed "Operation Cast Lead," started Saturday, just over a week after a fragile, six-month truce between Israel and Hamas formally ended.

Tel Aviv/Gaza - The Israel Air Force bombed Gaza again Monday morning, hitting 40 targets of the Islamic Hamas movement that rules the area, an Israeli army spokesman said.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed since the massive air operation started Saturday, just over a week after a fragile, six-month truce between Israel and Hamas formally ended.

Since the truce ended December 19, militant factions in Gaza, notably the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, fired scores of rockets and mortar rounds at Israel.

Berlin  - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Israel on Sunday to do everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties in its military action in the Gaza Strip.

Steinmeier, in a statement released by his ministry, also called for an end to missile attacks on Israeli territory by militants loyal to the enclave's Hamas leadership.

The German minister discussed the deteriorating situation by telephone Sunday with European Union foreign policy supremo Javier Solana and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country takes over the rotating EU presidency on January 1.

Amman - Thousands of Jordanians demonstrated outside the Egyptian embassy in Cairo Sunday to press Egyptian authorities to re- open the Rafah crossing point with the Gaza Strip.

"Our sit-in before the Egyptian embassy today has the primary aim of telling the Egyptian regime ... that the Rafah crossing point should be re-opened," said Zaki Bani Ershaid, secretary general of the Islamic Action Front (IAF).

Other demonstrators urged the governments of Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have concluded peace treaties with Israel, to "sever ties" with the Jewish state.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Yemeni capital Sana'a and several other main cities on Sunday to protest against the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The largest gathering was in Sana'a, where around 80,000 people rallied in the city's main football stadium, police officials said.

Thousands of protesters also took part in anti-Israeli demonstrations in the cities of Aden, Dhalea, Taiz, Houdieda, Dhamar, Abyan and Lahj, they said.

In Sana'a, protesters held up pictures of the leaders of Hamas movement and the Palestinian flag alongside with banners denouncing the Israeli attacks.

Amman  - Thousands of people participated in rallies across the Middle East Sunday to protest Israel's airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and to show support for Palestinians caught in the attacks.

Some of the larger protests were in the capitals of Yemen and Jordan. Hundreds of protesters also clashed with policemen in Lebanon while smaller demonstrations were staged in Iran.

Arab League leaders have agreed to meet Wednesday to discuss a reaction to the Israeli airstrikes, which were prompted by missile and mortar attacks out of the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire expired on December 19.

Since the Israeli attacks started Saturday, 283 Palestinians, many of them militants, are reported dead. More than 900 have reportedly been wounded.