U.S. President Barack Obama Sunday said it was "preferable" for the Gaza crisis to be ended without a "ramping up" of Israeli military action, as fears mounted of a new invasion of the Hamas-run territory.

"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said, adding, "if that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that is preferable".

The Gaza-based offices of a Kremlin-funded international Russian TV broadcaster were severely damaged Sunday in an Israeli raid on two buildings housing Palestinian and other media outlets, the station said.

The Israeli army confirmed attacking the Shurouq center in Gaza City in an attempt to interrupt what it said was Hamas "operational communications" from the building.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said in an interview on Sunday he welcomed efforts by his Egyptian counterpart to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict but accused Hamas of rejecting the proposals.

He also said he could forsee a scaling back of the situation and stressed that Israel was taking great pains not to hit civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Rescue crews in Dubai safely evacuated a 34-story residential tower Sunday after a fire gutted portions of the building, police said.

The blaze charred the outside of the structure and sent gray smoke drifting over a major development known as Jumeirah Lakes Towers, a cluster of high-rise apartment buildings and shops on the southern edge ofDubai.

An Arab League delegation headed by the bloc's chief Nabil al-Arabi will visit Gaza on Tuesday in a show of support for the territory in the face of Israeli air strikes, a league official said.

"The Arab ministerial delegation formed by the Arab foreign ministerial council will visit Gaza on Tuesday, headed by Nabil al-Arabi," the official said in a statement .

Damascus deems hostile a decision by France to host an ambassador from the newly formed Syrian opposition National Coalition, a Syrian minister said in key regional ally Iran on Sunday.

"France is acting like a hostile nation," Ali Haidar, minister for national reconciliation, told Agence France Presse.

A ground invasion of the Gaza Strip would lose Israel much international sympathy and support, British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned Sunday.

Hague told Sky News television it was much more difficult to limit civilian casualties in a ground assault and it would threaten to prolong the conflict.

Iran expects regional countries to send weapons to the Palestinians to help them fight Israel, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday.

"Although political measures taken by the regional countries are admirable, they are definitely not sufficient," Larijani said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

Iran on Sunday warned against sending weapons to Syrian rebels battling its ally in Damascus, saying that this would threaten regional stability and increase the "risk of terrorism."

"Some countries envisage arming the opposition with heavy and semi-heavy weaponry," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a speech to open an inter-Syria dialogue in Tehran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel is ready to "significantly expand" its operation against militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip as it entered its fifth day.

"The army is prepared to significantly expand the operation," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. "The soldiers are ready for any activity that could take place."