At talks in Brussels, from 1700 GMT, the ministers will assess the state of the ceasefire Gaza, where more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since last month, and look at ways to improve the flow of aid.

But beyond the immediate help needed by Gaza residents, the EU wants to try to use Israel’s war on Hamas to kick start long-stalled efforts to bring peace to the region, and foster an agreement between the feuding Palestinians.

“We want to talk to the four of them about how do we get the region behind a meaningful peace process. We need the broader support of the Arab world,” an EU diplomat said ahead of the talks. “Some of those countries are bridges to other countries in the Arab world or the Muslim world, like Syria or Iran,” the latter accused of supplying arms to Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, he said.

Some 5,300 people were also wounded in Israel’s land, sea and air assault, Operation Cast Lead, launched on December 27 in the impoverished coastal strip to stop Hamas firing rockets at Israeli civilians.