Mogherini urges longer Gaza truce

(ANSA) - Belgrade, July 28 - Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini on Monday called for the extension of a humanitarian truce between Israel and Gaza, which began on Sunday. "I join in the call of the United Nations Security Council, which last night called on all sides to respect the humanitarian truce to be extended at least until the end of today's festivities marking the end of (the Islamic holy month of) Ramadan," Mogherini said while on an official visit in the Serbian capital.
    "This would be a gesture of great religious, human and political respect".
    Mogherini went on to call for the ceasefire to be used to negotiate a more extended truce in the 21-day conflict in which more than 1,000 people have been killed, most of them Palestinian civilians. "There are several proposals ... beginning with the Egyptian one. I believe it to be in Israel's interests to work on them and to accept them," Mogherini suggested.