The foreign ministry "strongly deplores" the situation in Gaza and will send a relief mission and an additional SFr3 million ($2.7 million) in aid to the area.

In a statement released on Friday, the ministry said it is still calling for an immediate end to the violence and wants an impartial inquiry into possible violations of humanitarian law.

Earlier in the day at an extraordinary session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Navi Pillay, the top United Nations human rights official, also called for a "credible and independent" investigation into the matter.

She said UN human rights monitors should be deployed not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and Israel as well.

Pillay called for an end to violence and said the ceasefire demanded by the UN on Thursday night should come into force immediately. The foreign ministry said it welcomed the UN resolution.

Israel announced on Friday that it would continue its military operations despite the UN resolution, while Hamas said it was not concerned by it.

In nearly two weeks of fighting, nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, while ten Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians have died.

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