In a statement, the Slovenian presidency called on all the parties "to exercise utmost restraint and refrain from use of force."

At least 28 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza early Wednesday morning, 11 of them at Ashkelon and 12 at Sderot, a day after the Israeli killed 19 Palestinians, including the son of a top Hamas official, in heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Hamas claimed responsibility for the killing of an Ecuadorian volunteer by a Palestinian sniper. The shooting took place in fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha near the Gaza border.

On the same day, Qassam rockets pounded the western Negev and the city of Sderot. One scored a direct hit on a home, wounding five people, including a mother and her young daughter.

The EU presidency appealed for calm, "particularly in this time of renewed political process and furthermore encourages Israel and the Palestinian Authority to pursue negotiations in accordance with the Annapolis joint understanding."

In a separate statement, Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, made the following comments on today’s violence: "The casualties resulting from today’s events in Gaza as well as in a nearby farming community across the border with Israel and the continued firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel are a stark reminder of the urgent need to advance on the path to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which was set out in Annapolis.”

"I call on all concerned to exercise restraint and to stop the cycle of violence which will only feed new atrocities and lead to further suffering by the people in the region."