Russia urges Israel, Palestinians to stop fighting

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia called on Israel and the Palestinian territories to end the latest wave of violence to give a chance to peace talks.

At least 68 Palestinians have been killed in four days of intense Israeli air strikes and raids in the tiny Hamas-controlled Gaza strip, home to 1.5 million people straddling Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.

Israel said it was responding to cross-border rockets which killed an Israeli man in the border town of Sderot on Wednesday and wounded three others in the major southern city of Ashkelon.

"Moscow once again voices its categorical condemnation of the rocket attacks on Israeli territory," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "They must stop immediately."

Moscow also said it could not accept that "shells and bombs are falling on the heads of peaceful (Palestinian) women and children, under the pretext of fighting these acts of terror".

"Given the tough blockade of the Gaza Strip, the permanent humanitarian catastrophe, such acts by Israel only give extra arguments to those not willing that Israel and a future Palestinian state should live in peace and harmony," the statement said.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov)