AMERICAN REACTION:PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama was briefed at the weekend by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, about the Israeli bombardment of Gaza but gave no hint of how he would go about resolving the conflict.
Mr Obama, who is on holiday on Hawaii, spoke to Ms Rice for about eight minutes on Saturday.
His national security spokeswoman, Brooke Anderson, said: "The president-elect appreciated the call and the information from secretary Rice. He will continue to closely monitor these and other global events."
She added that he would not comment, as he was sticking to the formula that there should be "one president at a time".
Although Mr Obama has repeatedly said he will abide by the protocol of not commenting on international and domestic matters until he becomes president on January 20th, he has largely abandoned this in relation to the economic crisis, on which he has spoken regularly over the last few weeks, often at odds with President George Bush.
Obama has given no hint so far of his policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though he has said finding a peace plan will be an early priority of his administration. Before running for the presidency, he aired opinions in his home town, Chicago, strongly sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, incurring suspicion among Israelis and some US Jewish groups.
But after winning the Democratic nomination earlier this year he veered in the other direction, voicing strong support for Israel in a speech in Washington to the Israeli lobby group AIPAC.
In July, on a visit to Sderot, he unequivocally condemned the rocket attacks from Gaza on the Israeli town. "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Mr Obama said.
"And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
A similar sentiment was expressed by Ms Rice on Saturday. "The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," she said. "The ceasefire should be restored immediately.
"The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza."
The White House security spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, also pinned the blame for the fighting on Hamas, whom he referred to as terrorists and thugs.
The Washington Post quoted an unnamed senior Bush administration official saying he thought the Israelis launched the attack because of uncertainty over Mr Obama's policy.
The official said the Israelis acted "because they want it to be over before the next administration comes in".
Mr Bush started his presidency determined not to expend much effort on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after watching his predecessor, Bill Clinton, devote his last months in office in a futile attempt to bring peace.
Mr Obama's proposed secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and various other foreign policy advisers would like to mount another attempt at resolving the conflict.
But President-elect Obama has other foreign policy issues competing for his attention such as the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and the escalating conflict in Afghanistan.