RAMALLAH, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international society on Saturday to press Israel to stop escalating violence, Abbas' aide Saeb Erekat said.

    President Abbas urged "a number of Arab and European leaders to urgently stop the Israeli violence," Erekat told local radio "Voice of Palestine."

    Meanwhile, well-informed Palestinian official sources said that Abbas called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice early on Saturday, urging Washington to intervene and press Israel to stop escalation of violence.

    Seven members of a family picnicking on a Gaza beach were killed on Friday in an Israeli shelling and only a seven-year-oldgirl survived, witnesses said.

    But the Israeli army said it was too early to be certain of the cause of the incident, promising an investigation.

    Abbas has condemned the killings.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement, "The United States expresses its regret for the killing and wounding of innocent Palestinians in Gaza...as a result of artillery fire by the Israeli Defense Forces."

    In the wake of the Gaza beach bloodshed, Hamas spokesman in Gaza Sami Abu Zuhri announced an end to a de facto truce with Israel which Hamas had largely abided by since March 2005. Abu Zuhri said that the Israeli killings of Palestinian civilians forced Hamas to "renew struggles."

    Prior to the beach incident, three Palestinians who Israel said were a rocket launching crew were killed in an Israeli air strike. But Palestinian witnesses said the killed were civilians. Enditem