Israel will not participate in indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas for now and instead plans to scale back its 26-day military operation in Gaza on its own terms, according to officials and media reports.

Israeli air strikes pummelled a wide range of targets in the Gaza Strip today as the UN chief and the US Secretary of State began an intensive effort to end more than two weeks of fighting that has killed at least 570 Palestinians and 29 Israelis.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak today said he would not quit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government over its handling of the 2006 Lebanon war – but would stay on to redress problems in the military that the fighting exposed.