Gaza battles rage as Osama Bin Laden urges jihad

Israel bombed smuggling tunnels and battled fighters in Gaza streets on Wednesday as Osama bin Laden issued a call to arms among Muslims to combat an offensive that has killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians. The Al-Qaeda chief's appeal for jihad to stop Israel's "aggression against Gaza" came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in the region seeking to end a war now in its 19th day. But the scale of the task facing diplomats was highlighted when rockets slammed into northern Israel from Lebanon, the second such attack in less than a week. The diplomatic fallout from Israeli's deadliest ever offensive in the impoverished strip also became evident when a senior European Union official said talks on upgrading ties with the Jewish state had been put on hold. Egypt meanwhile pushed on with its efforts to bring about a ceasefire, promising to convey Hamas' response to a truce proposal to Israel.