Israel shrugs off UNSC resolution calling to end attacks, resumes war in Gaza

UN Human rights chief urges independent probe into "war crimes" in strip

Palestinians split over int'l resolution, Hamas rejects truce

The U.N. Security Council called for an "immediate" and "durable" cease-fire in Gaza in a resolution Thursday night even as fighting between Israel and Hamas raged — with early morning air strikes killing seven Palestinians and pushing the death toll to about 760 in the near two-week conflict.

U.N. action came hours after the world body suspended food deliveries to Gaza and the Red Cross accused Israel of blocking medical assistance after forces fired on aid workers. It also followed concerns of a wider conflict which flared as militants in Lebanon fired rockets into northern Israel.

The vote was 14-0, with the United States abstaining. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. "fully supports" the resolution but abstained "to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation" with Israel and Hamas, also aimed at achieving a cease-fire.

Israel and Hamas were not parties to the vote and it will now be up to them to stop the fighting. But the text of the resolution was hammered out by the United States, Israel's chief ally, and by Arab nations that have ties to Hamas and the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories.

As the Security Council took action late Thursday in New York, it was early Friday in Gaza and violence continued unabated — an Israeli air strike flattened a five-story building in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people, including an infant, Hamas security officials said. It was one of more than 30 targets struck before dawn by Israeli warplanes. It was not immediately clear whether the owner of the destroyed house was linked to Hamas.

Militants in Lebanon fired several Katyusha rockets into northern Israel early Thursday, including one that tore through the roof of a nursing home and injured two people.

Israel responded swiftly with mortar fire, raising the possibility of a two-front conflict.

With Friday's toll, nearly 760 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have died in the 13 days of fighting in Gaza, an assault launched by Israel in an attempt to halt rocket fire from the territory, controlled by the militant Islamic Hamas. Hamas said it fired 25 rockets and 12 mortars at Israel on Thursday.

The conflict has left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza increasingly desperate for food, water, fuel and medical assistance, and the situation was expected to worsen as humanitarian efforts fall victim to the fighting.

The Security Council resolution "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." It expressed "grave concern" at the escalating violence and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and emphasized the need to open all border crossings and achieve a lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

It also calls on U.N. member states "to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable cease-fire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained re-opening" of border crossings.

In addition, the resolution "condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians," calls for "unimpeded" humanitarian access to Gaza, and welcomes the initiative to open "humanitarian corridors."

Simon Horner, of the European Commission aid department, said 60 percent of Gaza's 1.4 million people have no electricity, and fewer people every day have access to clean water. The sewage system is in danger of a failing, which could lead to an outbreak of disease, and medical services were under severe stress.

"The inability of the U.N. to provide assistance in this worsening humanitarian crisis is unacceptable," said Michele Montas, a U.N. spokeswoman. She said according to reports, the attack on the U.N. truck, which killed two Palestinian workers, took place during a three-hour humanitarian lull announced by the Israel Defense Force. Four U.N. Relief and Works Agency local staff have been killed in the conflict.

In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it would restrict aid operations to Gaza City for at least one day after one of its convoys came under Israeli fire at the Netzarim crossing during the three-hour lull in fighting Thursday. One driver was lightly injured.

The World Health Organization said 21 Palestinian medical workers have been killed and 30 more injured since Israel began its offensive.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it cooperates closely with foreign aid groups to help civilians, and said Hamas uses civilians as human shields.

The international Red Cross also accused Israel of hindering rescuers from reaching areas devastated in the battles. Ambulances could not get to the Zeitoun neighborhood for four days because the Israelis had blocked access with large earthen barriers, officials said.

When they were allowed in Wednesday, the rescuers "found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up," the ICRC said in a rare public statement. "In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses" in one of the houses.

During the lull in fighting Thursday, Palestinian health officials dug out 35 bodies from several areas around Gaza that had been engulfed by battles or struck by Israeli air attacks since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas, said Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.

At least 24 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Thursday, including three elderly people fleeing their home, according to Hassanain. He estimated the death toll around 750, and U.N. officials say about half were civilians.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in combat Thursday, raising the number of soldiers killed in the conflict to 10, including one who died in a mortar strike before the ground invasion began. Three Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets.

Gaza militants unleashed 24 missiles at southern Israel on Thursday, wounding four people.

Egyptian-led diplomatic cease-fire efforts showed no immediate breakthroughs. Israeli representatives concluded talks in Cairo and returned home, one day after Hamas leaders reviewed the French-Egyptian plan that might offer a role in Gaza to the rival Palestinian Authority.

Israel's government said Wednesday it viewed the proposal positively, but only if it guaranteed a halt to rocket fire on Israeli territory from Gaza and ensured Hamas cannot rearm. A Hamas official said the Islamic militant group was not ready to either accept or reject the plan.

But Mohammed Nazzal, a member of Hamas' Damascus-based political leadership, said, "We will never raise the white flag. I believe there are going to be fierce battles and the resistance factions will fight house to house, street to street and neighborhood to neighborhood."

Israel launched a ferocious air assault on Gaza Dec. 27 to disable Palestinian militants and cripple the Hamas movement.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the shooting at the U.N. aid vehicle. U.N. spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said the truck was heading toward the Erez border crossing to pick up supplies and had coordinated the delivery with Israel.

"We've been coordinating with them (Israeli forces) and yet our staff continue to be hit and killed," said Chris Gunness of UNRWA, which has been helping Gaza refugees since 1949, he said.

The deaths follow Israel's killing of at least 39 people at a U.N. school where hundreds of people had sought refuge from the relentless air and ground attacks. Israel said its troops were returning fire toward a squad of militants who fired mortars at its troops then ran toward the school to hide among the refugees.

Two hours after Thursday's shooting on the truck, Israel ordered a three-hour halt in its offensive for the second day in a row to allow aid into the territory. Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said 89 trucks of food were unloaded, along with 83,000 gallons (315,000 liters) of fuel.

The two 3-hour breaks in the offensive provided rare windows for Gazans to buy from the dwindling supplies in the shops, and for rescuers to scour the ruins of entire neighborhoods for unreported casualties. Hassanain, the health official, said 20 more bodies were uncovered during Wednesday's mini-truce, in addition to the 35 found Thursday.

Israel had been braced for a resumption of hostilities on its northern border, anticipating that Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon would try to come to the aid of its Gaza ally, Hamas.

Nonetheless, the four rockets that hit the town of Nahariya created panic. "We are all a bit traumatized at the moment," said Sarit Arieli, 44, standing outside the nursing home that had been hit a few hours earlier.

Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a standstill in a 34-day war in 2006 and is now a key faction in the Lebanese government, denied it was responsible for the rockets. Speculation focused on small Palestinian groups, which have rocketed Israel twice since the end of the Lebanon conflict. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora condemned the attack.

Israeli leaders tried to keep a lid on northern tensions, calling it a one-time incident and welcoming Lebanon's condemnation.

The UN human rights chief warned a special session of the Human Rights Council on Friday that violations in the Gaza Strip were severe and that some reported incidents may warrant prosecutions for war crimes.

"The vicious cycle of provocation and retribution must be brought to an end," Navi Pillay told the council, which was holding a special session on human rights violations in the Palestinian territory.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also called for an independent investigation of the violence. The session is expected to decide Monday whether or not to adopt a draft resolution tabled by Cuba, Egypt and Pakistan.

The text seeks the 47-member council's condemnation of the Israeli offensive and of the "grave human rights situation" in Gaza.

Pillay underlined that Israel and Palestinian militants had an obligation under international humanitarian law to care for the wounded, and to protect ambulances, hospitals, health workers, schools, civilians as well as their homes.

The High Commissioner underscored calls for a ceasefire, warning that rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israel and "retaliatory" air strikes by Israel forces were "unacceptable."

"The situation is intolerable," she said, warning that the overall conditions for civilians "constitute egregious violations of human rights."

But Pillay went further, enumerating more evidence of violations of international humanitarian law from the UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, after civilians and relief workers were killed or wounded during Israeli attacks.

"Accountability must be ensured for violations of international law," she said, calling for "credible, independent and transparent investigations" as a first step.

"I remind this council that violations of international humanitarian law may constitute war crimes for which individual criminal responsibility may be invoked," she added.

The draft resolution tabled late Friday underlined the civilian toll, especially in Gaza, and called for "the immediate cessation of Israeli military attacks" as well as an "end to the launching of crude rockets against Israeli civilians".

It also demanded that Israel "stop the targeting of civilians and medical facilities and staff". Traditionally the Human Rights Council takes its decisions by consensus.

But diplomats and rights groups said tough negotiations were underway because some western countries feared the current proposals for UN monitoring of human rights violations against the Palestinians were one-sided.

Diplomatic sources said even European countries were divided on the best way to proceed.

Unease has grown with the mounting civilian toll following Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip that have also hit homes and schools.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, insisted that Israeli forces had given Palestinian civilians advance notice of attacks on nearby Hamas strongholds including through "thousands of phone calls."

"Israel has done its utmost to minimize harm to the civilian population, often at the cost of operational advantage," he told the Human Rights Council, also accusing Hamas of using human shields.

The session will resume Monday after a weekend break, the UN human rights office said.

The meeting comes on the heels of the UN Security Council's near unanimous approval on Thursday of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the unimpeded provision throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance.

However, Hamas later rejected that resolution, and Israel followed by rejecting a ceasefire.

Hamas said Friday it rejected the U.N. resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip because it served Israel's interests and ignored the needs of the Palestinians.

"We reject this resolution because it is not in our best interest or that of the Palestinian people," Raafat Morra, an official with the militant group, told AFP in Beirut.

"This resolution does not take into account the aspirations and the main objectives of the Palestinians and as such we do not feel bound by it," he said.

He was referring to a U.N. Security Council resolution, passed late Thursday, calling for an immediate ceasefire in the two-week-old conflict between Israel and the militant group, in which nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed.

Israel Friday also indicated it would ignore the resolution as the fighting in the Gaza Strip continued.

"Israel has never agreed for any outside influence to decide on its right to defend its citizens," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a statement, after more than 50 overnight strikes by the Jewish state's air force. "The IDF will continue to operate in order to defend the citizens of Israel and will carry out the task it was given for the operation." Palestinian emergency services said Friday that Israel's overnight air strikes killed 12 civilians.

In Gaza, a senior Hamas official said the militant group didn't feel concerned by the U.N. resolution which was carried by 14 of the Security Council's 15 members. The U.S. abstained.

"Even though we are the main actors on the ground in Gaza, we were not consulted about this resolution and they have not taken into account our vision and the interests of our people," Hamas official Ayman Taha told AFP.

"As a result we do not feel concerned by this resolution and when the different parties apply it they will have to deal with those who are in charge on the ground."

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri made similar comments in an interview with Qatar-based Aljazeera television on Friday.

"In the Hamas movement, we do not think that the battle has ended because this resolution was issued, especially after...the continuation of the aggression in Gaza after it was issued," Abu Zuhri said.

Morra said the text touched "very vaguely" on the rights of the Palestinians and ignored three key demands.

"It does not address in a definitive manner Israel's aggression on the Palestinian people, it does not call for the lifting of the siege on Gaza and thirdly it does not call for the opening of all crossings into the territory," he said. "It serves the interests of the occupier and is a face-saving measure after the series of setbacks Israel has experienced in Gaza."

Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the Palestinian territory for more than 18 months, crippling much economic activity and forcing many of the 1.5 million population to depend on humanitarian aid.

Hamas and its allies fired more than 15 rockets into southern Israel Friday, wounding one person, the Israeli military said.

Abu Zuhri said a Hamas delegation would travel to Cairo on Saturday, when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli jets and helicopters bombarded Gaza Friday and Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets, as Israel's government said it will press forward with its offensive despite a U.N. resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

One Israeli air strike killed two Hamas militants and another unidentified man, while another flattened a five-story building in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people, including an infant, Hamas security officials said. By midday, 19 Palestinians had been killed.

In all, Israeli aircraft struck more than 30 targets before dawn, and constant explosions continued after first light. Friday's deaths in Gaza pushed the Palestinian death toll to more than 760 in the two-week-old conflict, with at least half of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Thirteen Israelis have died.

In Israel's first official response to the U.N. Security Council resolution, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Israel "has never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens."

The military "will continue acting to protect Israeli citizens and will carry out the missions it was given," the statement read. The rockets fell in Israel on Friday "only prove that the U.N.'s decision is not practical and will not be kept in practice by the Palestinian murder organizations."

Israel launched its assault on Dec. 27 in an attempt to halt years of rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled territory.

Despite the devastating offensive, Hamas continued to bombard residents of southern Israel. Rockets hit Friday morning across southern Israel, including in and around Beersheba and Ashkelon, which — like other cities within rocket range of Gaza — have largely been paralyzed since the fighting began.

The U.N. Security Council resolution was approved Thursday night by a 14-0 vote, with the United States abstaining. The resolution "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."

Israel and Hamas were not parties to the council vote and it is now up to them to stop the fighting. But a Hamas spokesman said the Islamic militant group "is not interested" in the cease-fire because it was not consulted and the resolution did not meet its minimum demands.

Israel called up thousands of reserve troops earlier in the week, and they are now ready for action.

The Security Council action came hours after a U.N. agency suspended food deliveries to Gaza, and the Red Cross accused Israel of blocking medical assistance after forces fired on aid workers. It also followed concerns of a wider conflict after militants in Lebanon fired rockets into northern Israel early Thursday, though the border has been quiet since.

The United States abstained from the Security Council vote even though it helped hammer out the resolution's text along with Arab nations that have ties to Hamas and the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. "fully supports" the resolution but abstained "to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation" with Israel and Hamas, also aimed at achieving a cease-fire.

The resolution expresses "grave concern" at the escalating violence and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and emphasizes the need to open all border crossings and achieve a lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

It also calls on U.N. member states "to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable cease-fire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained reopening" of border crossings.

In addition, the resolution "condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians" and calls for "unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza."

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas envoy to Lebanon, told the al-Arabiya satellite channel that the group "is not interested in it because it does not meet the demands of the movement." Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the U.N. failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people. "This resolution doesn't mean that the war is over," he told the Aljazeera satellite television network. "We call on the Palestinian fighters to mobilize and be ready to face the offensive, and we urge the Arab masses to carry on with their angry protests."

Following the resolution, Egypt was expected to take the lead in persuading Israel and Hamas to accept it. Israeli representatives returned home from talks in Cairo Thursday, and Hamas was due to send political leaders to the Egyptian capital on Saturday.

Israel's government says any cease-fire must guarantee an end to rocket fire and arms smuggling into Gaza. During a six-month cease-fire that ended with the current operation, Hamas is thought to have used tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to smuggle in the medium-range rockets it is now using to hit deeper than ever inside Israel.

Hamas has said it won't accept any agreement that does not include the full opening Gaza's blockaded border crossings. Israel is unlikely to agree to that demand, as it would allow Hamas to strengthen its hold on the territory which it violently seized in June 2007.

With Israeli troops now in control of many of the open areas used by militants to launch rockets, gunman have continued shooting from inside populated neighborhoods.

The conflict has left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza increasingly desperate for food, water, fuel and medical assistance, and the situation was expected to worsen as humanitarian efforts fall victim to the fighting.

One of the dead Thursday was a Ukrainian woman, the first foreigner to die in the fighting, according to Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain. He said the woman was married to a Palestinian doctor who trained in Ukraine and returned with her to Gaza. Her 2-year-old son was also killed in the tank shelling east of Gaza City, he said.

Details are emerging of other incidents in which civilians were killed. A U.N. agency said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in Gaza City on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later, killing 30 people.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report was based on eyewitness testimony. It added details to an incident previously reported by The Associated Press and an Israeli human rights group.

The U.N. agency said 110 people were in the house. The 30 people reported killed is a far higher figure than in other accounts.

The Israeli military had no comment on the report Friday. The West Bank saw its biggest protests so far Friday, as thousands took to the streets following prayers to express their anger at the Israeli offensive. In Ramallah, scuffles broke out between supporters of Hamas and the rival Fatah faction.