JERUSALEM: Israeli jets and helicopters bombarded Gaza early Friday, as Israel’s government said it will press forward with its offensive despite a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
One Israeli airstrike killed two Hamas insurgents 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 about 760 in the two-week-old conflict, at least half of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis have died.
Fourteen of the 15 council members voted in favor of a compromise resolution agreed upon after lengthy negotiations between Arab and Western foreign ministers. The United States, Israel’s main ally, abstained but refrained from vetoing the resolution.
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.
In Israel’s first official response to the UN 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, read the statement. The rockets that continued to fall in Israel on Friday “only prove that the UN’s decision is not practical and will not be kept in practice by the Palestinian murder organizations.
Israel launched its bloody assault on Dec. 27 in an attempt to halt 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.
Israel and Hamas were not parties to the council vote and it is now up to them to stop the fighting.
Hamas said on Friday it rejected the 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 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 added.
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 UN 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 insurgents 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.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US “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 UN 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.
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 insurgents 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.
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. -Agencies
