Israel, Hamas ignore U.N. cease-fire resolution
The two sides continue their attacks as the conflict enters its 14th day. Eleven Israelis and more than 770 Palestinians have been killed.
Reporting from Jerusalem —
Israel and Hamas today ignored a United Nations cease-fire resolution, with the Israeli military attacking more than 50 targets in the Gaza Strip and militants firing rockets from the beleaguered Palestinian enclave.
The war in Gaza entered its 14th day with little indication that the international community or an Egyptian-backed peace initiative would bring a quick end to hostilities.
Hamas officials said they would not abide by a resolution for which they were not consulted.
Israel, complaining that the U.N. measure was unworkable, kept thousands of army reservists on alert and vowed to continue its offensive.
"The state of Israel has never agreed that any outside body would determine its right to defend the security of its citizens," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today.
He added that the army would "continue operations in order to defend Israeli citizens. . . . This morning's rocket fire against residents of the south only proves U.N. Security Council Resolution 1860 is not practical and will not be honored in actual fact by the Palestinian murder organizations."
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 satellite television channel Al Jazeera. "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."
Israel found itself under increasing pressure to answer questions about a military campaign that has killed more than 770 Palestinians, about a quarter of whom are civilians. The U.N., citing growing danger, suspended the movements of its workers in Gaza, and the Israeli Supreme Court gave the Jewish state four days to explain why the army was delaying the evacuation of wounded Palestinians.
The United Nations has called for an investigation of the more than two dozen deaths that occurred when Israeli shells struck an apartment building in which people had taken refuge after fleeing their homes in the Gaza neighborhood of Zeitoun.
John Holmes, U.N. chief of humanitarian aid programs, called the deaths "a particularly outrageous incident."
In a 14-0 vote, with the United States abstaining, the Security Council on Thursday called for an "immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire" in Gaza that would lead to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
