A senior Palestinian official said on Sunday that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had called on the United States to pressurize on Israel to stop its military aggression against the Palestinian people.

Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath told the Voice of Palestine radio that Abbas had contacted US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and called upon her for an immediate intervention to stop Israeli army's latest continuous strikes in the Palestinian territories.

"Serious efforts are spent to stop the Israeli military escalation and aggression, we contacted international and Arab parties but the results are not what we are seeking for," said Shaath.

He asserted that the day-and-night airstrikes conducted by Israeli army are kind of war crimes, adding that "we need a real international support to stop it."

Meanwhile, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) also called on the United States and the Quartet Committee to interfere in Israel to end the security deterioration in Palestinian territories, according to sources close to the presidential office.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for President Abbas, said earlier that an American intervention will positively contribute in maintaining the truce and preventing any deterioration in the region.

Well-informed Palestinian sources believe that the Israel is likely to stop its airstrikes that targeted empty areas in the Gaza Strip under the American and Egyptian intervention.

The sources said that Israel possibly accepted the PNA demand to end its strikes, in return the PNA would prevent militants from firing homemade rockets at Israeli towns in the Western Negev.

Israel carried out air and ground military strikes at the Gaza Strip and the West bank, killing at least eight Palestinians and wounding some two dozens in recent days.

Source: Xinhua