|
GAZA CITY: Israel carried out more than 40 air strikes against Hamas
fighters yesterday, targeting arms manufacturing sites, weapon
depots and smuggling tunnels as the fighting entered into its third
week.
Both sides ignored a UN Security Council demand
to end the fighting that has killed more than 800 people.
Ground troops were involved in exchanges of fire
with Palestinian fighters across the territory, an Israeli
spokeswoman said. Gaza medics said at least one Palestinian was
killed.
Since the start of the offensive, at least 800
Palestinians have been killed, including 230 children and 92 women,
and another 3,330 wounded, according to Gaza medics.
Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have
been killed in combat and or in rocket attacks over the same period.
The United Nations said it would resume
distribution in the enclave where most of the 1.5 million population
depend on foreign aid after Israel gave “credible assurances that
the security of UN personnel installations and humanitarian
operations would be fully respected” following a deadly attack on
one UN convoy.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon expressed
disappointment with Israel’s defiance of the resolution demanding
an immediate halt to the Jewish state’s deadliest offensive in
Gaza, already reeling from an 18-month Israeli blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel
would not bow to “outside influence” and would not stop its
offensive in the face of persistent rocket fire from Gaza.a
Hamas said it was not consulted on the ceasefire
resolution and would not accept a truce that did not see the lifting
of the crippling blockade, which Israel imposed on the territory
after the Islamists seized power in June 2007.
The civilian death toll from combat inside one
of the world’s most densely populated placed has spiraled since
Israel poured in ground troops on January 3 after a week of
bombardment from air and sea.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday
that some incidents reported during the fighting in Gaza might
warrant prosecutions for war crimes.
“The vicious cycle of provocation and
retribution must be brought to an end,” he told the human rights
council, which was holding a special session on suspected violations
in the Palestinian territory.
The humanitarian impact of Operation Cast Lead
was also becoming more acute with the UN warning that families were
going hungry as food supplies dry up.
“We are receiving reports that some people are
starting to burn their furniture to bake bread and to cook,”
United Nations Relief and Works Agency spokesman Christopher Gunness
told Agence France-Presse.
Israel launched its war against the Islamists on
December 27 aiming to end rocket fire against southern towns and the
smuggling of weapons into Gaza through tunnels under the border with
Egypt.
Hamas and its allies have fired more than 600
rockets, some of them penetrating deeper than ever inside Israel.
Egypt has been spearheading efforts to end the
fighting and on Saturday President Hosni Mubarak was to meet
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. A Hamas delegation was also in
Cairo for talks.
Arab anger at the conflict has spiraled, with
rallies held on Friday in Egypt, Amman, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait,
Baghdad, Algiers and several European capitals.
Israel’s closest ally Washington kept up its
support of the offensive, with the US House of Representatives
joining the Senate in calling on Hamas to end rocket attacks.
“Today, we reaffirm that Israel, like any
nation, has a right to self-defense when under attack,” said House
speaker Nancy Pelosi.
-- AFP
|
