United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, and called on Israel to unilaterally cease hostilities in Gaza. “We have no time to lose,” said Ban who is on a seven-day trip to the Middle East. “A unilateral declaration of a ceasefire would be necessary at this time.” “There is increasing hope that flows from the intensive political discussions that are going on,” said John Ging, head of U.N. operations in Gaza, who was speaking to reporters in New York via videolink from Gaza. “People are in mortal danger here in the Gaza Strip, and have been for the last 21 days and nights and the casualty figures bear that out. At the moment there is a glimmer of hope. They are bewildered, shell-shocked and in real fear but they are grasping at this latest round of diplomatic efforts in the hope that this might end,” Ging added. Ging also said that another 59 people had been killed overnight Thursday, including 24 children bringing the total number of fatalities since December 27th to 1,115 with more than 5,000 wounded.
