Israel Ignores Latest UN Resolution Condemning Its Violence

Israel killed nine Palestinians in a massive military raid into Gaza City, then brushed aside a UN Security Council vote calling it to end its siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

At least six of the Palestinians killed when 80 armoured vehicles backed by helicopters stormed the eastern fringes of Gaza City were civilians, Palestinian officials said Tuesday.

In New York, Israel's ally the United States abstained in the 14-0 vote for the European-drafted UN resolution condemning the destruction and siege of the veteran leader's West Bank compound.

The resolution, welcomed by the Palestinians, pointed the finger at both sides in demanding "the complete cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction."

It was passed as Israeli troops launched one of their biggest incursions yet in the hunt for suspected militants in the Gaza Strip, drawing fresh Palestinian accusations of "war crimes" and predictions of a full-scale reoccupation.

Israeli units including more than 80 armoured vehicles, backed by helicopters, stormed into Gaza City early Tuesday, sparking gun battles which lasted five hours and left nine Palestinians dead and at least 20 wounded, three critically, medical sources said.

Among the dead were militants from the military wing of the Islamist Hamas group and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical armed offshoot of Arafat's mainstream Fatah, both responsible for killing dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks.

The army reported no Israeli casualties and said it had achieved its "triple objective": to destroy the home of a wanted militant and metal workshops which Israel suspects are being used to make rockets and mortars, and to "kill armed elements who opened fire" on its troops.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat called the operation "a war crime", and told AFP it heralded Israel's reoccupation of the Gaza Strip.

Israel dismissed what was seen as a rare rebuke by its US ally in only abstaining on the UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to the Ramallah siege imposed Thursday, rather than vetoing it.

An official said it was to be expected, as Washington needed to obtain the largest support possible to deal with Iraq.

"The United Nations can do what it wants, but Israel will continue the operation until its aims are achieved," the official told AFP on condition he not be named.

"Either Arafat leaves his headquarters or the terrorists holed up there hand themselves over," the official said.

The council said it was "gravely concerned at the reoccupation of the headquarters of the President of the Palestinian Authority in the City of Ramallah" and demanded "its immediate end."

Deputy US ambassador to the UN James Cunningham said he abstained because the resolution failed to explicitly condemn Palestinian suicide bombings, but did not say why he refrained from vetoing it, as Washington has done in the past for similar resolutions.

Israel's UN ambassador Yehuda Lancry said he was disappointed by the US abstention and complained there was no "specific reference to the terrorist actions" which preceded the siege of Arafat.

In fact the resolution singled out for condemnation last week's "terrorist" bombing in a Palestinian school in Hebron and the double Palestinian suicide attack by Islamist groups in Israel which sparked the action in Ramallah.

The spectacular bulldozing of every building around Arafat's office, leaving the 73-year-old stranded in a few rooms with his 250-strong entourage, prompted a barrage of international criticism and Tuesday morning's vote was a new boost for the Palestinians.

"We welcome this decision, this is a step in the right direction but the important thing is to insist that Israeli implement it and withdraws immediately", Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

The resolution also demanded "the expeditious withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from Palestinian cities towards the return to the positions held prior to September 2000", when the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, broke out.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair meanwhile suggested a new international conference on the Middle East peace process, stressing the need for political reform of the Palestinian Authority and a security infrastructure to stop suicide bomb attacks on Israelis.


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