News agencies cited unnamed diplomatic sources late on Thursday who said the ceasefire plan being circulated by the three European Union countries included a lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip coupled with an international mission to monitor the flow of goods into the Palestinian territory.

The initiative was reported to have come after a draft resolution circulated by Jordan's mission to the United Nations met with resistance.

The Associated Press quoted one diplomat at UN headquarters in New York, who said both the Israelis and the Palestinians had indicated that a Security Council resolution could be helpful in getting politicians at home to accept measures to end the weeks-old conflict.

"The message that we are getting from both sides is that it would be helpful to prescribe some elements to enable them to sell [the proposal] internally," the diplomat said.

AP also reported that the United States had thrown its support behind the European effort.

Hamas military commanders killed

Meanwhile, the armed wing of the Islamist militant group Hamas, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Thursday that three of their top commanders had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas identified those killed as Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhoum, among the most senior Hamas leaders to die in the current conflict to date.

Witnesses said the airstrike had leveled a four-story family home in the city of Rafah on Gaza's border with Egypt.

More than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza on July 8, with the stated aim of ending rocket attacks on its territory. On the Israeli side, 67 people have been killed, including 64 members of the Israel Defense Forces

pfd/kms (AFP, dpa, Reuters)