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Israel accused of 'state terrorism'
A Palestinian official has accused Israel of state terrorism after an attack in Gaza that killed 18 civilians, and said Israeli apologies for such incidents were insincere and no longer acceptable.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer, told an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Thursday: "This is terrorism, this is state terrorism.
"These are war crimes for which the perpetrators must be held accountable under international law."
But an Israeli diplomat insisted that Wednesday's deadly shelling in Beit Hanoun had been accidental.
Israel was "deeply saddened" by it and doing its utmost to avoid a repetition, Israeli envoy Daniel Carmon said.
The council met at the request of the 22-member Arab League, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement after what Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, referred to as "a technical failure" but which Palestinian leaders have called a massacre.
The 18 dead, including seven children and four women, were buried at a mass funeral in Gaza on Thursday.
Since the end of June, more than 450 Palestinians had been killed in the Gaza Strip, "making death, mourning and grief a near-daily ritual for the people of Gaza", Mansour said.
Immediate ceasefire
A draft Security Council resolution put forward by Arab states would call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a UN observer force to enforce the ceasefire, as was done in southern Lebanon after the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah that ended in August.
But the US, Israel's closest ally and one of five permanent council members with veto power, typically opposes council intervention in the Middle East conflict as ineffective in ending the Arab-Israeli cycle of violence.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9DB7DCAA-C83A-42CF-A2A8-D77602AD2051.htm
"These are war crimes for which the perpetrators must be held accountable under international law."
But an Israeli diplomat insisted that Wednesday's deadly shelling in Beit Hanoun had been accidental.
Israel was "deeply saddened" by it and doing its utmost to avoid a repetition, Israeli envoy Daniel Carmon said.
The council met at the request of the 22-member Arab League, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement after what Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, referred to as "a technical failure" but which Palestinian leaders have called a massacre.
The 18 dead, including seven children and four women, were buried at a mass funeral in Gaza on Thursday.
Since the end of June, more than 450 Palestinians had been killed in the Gaza Strip, "making death, mourning and grief a near-daily ritual for the people of Gaza", Mansour said.
Immediate ceasefire
A draft Security Council resolution put forward by Arab states would call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a UN observer force to enforce the ceasefire, as was done in southern Lebanon after the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah that ended in August.
But the US, Israel's closest ally and one of five permanent council members with veto power, typically opposes council intervention in the Middle East conflict as ineffective in ending the Arab-Israeli cycle of violence.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9DB7DCAA-C83A-42CF-A2A8-D77602AD2051.htm
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Each day there are reports of further killings and atrocities by Israeli troops, in Gaza and the West Bank. Each time the Israelis say ‘sorry’ whilst preparing for their next assault on innocent civilians. Governments around the world make representations to no avail. Israel ignores them all. But there are definitive ways to make rogue states listen – particularly Israel which has no natural resources and exists solely on US taxpayers aid and the import and re-export of diamonds. The US and the EU are the two world markets that produce the money that enables the IDF to carry out these killings. There is no necessity for a boycott of Israeli oranges. Just close access to our markets until Israel ceases these violations of human rights.