JERUSALEM, 21 May 2004 — Ignoring an international outcry, Israel yesterday expanded its raid on the Gaza Strip, killing eight more Palestinians.
The UN Security Council urged an end to violence after Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians at a peaceful protest on Wednesday. The Council convened at the behest of Arabs angered over what they branded a “war crime”.
Reflecting its displeasure, the United States, Israel’s chief ally, allowed adoption of the UN resolution by abstaining rather than using its veto. President George W. Bush urged restraint from the Jewish state.
Senior US officials kept up pressure by making phone calls to their Israeli counterparts urging them to wrap up the three-day-old raid as quickly as possible, an Israeli political source said.
But the Israeli Army went on with its killings and punishing demolitions. Troops pushed into Rafah districts on the border with Egypt, where the army says it is searching for tunnels used to smuggle weapons for the intifada since 2000.
The humanitarian situation at the camp is turning grim. Food and water are running low, there is no milk for the babies and toddlers, and the older children are terrified.
Officials and relief groups warned of a humanitarian crisis unless water and electricity are restored to Tel Sultan, the area of Rafah that has taken the brunt of the Israeli incursion. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was working to get food, water and medical supplies to Tel Sultan’s 25,000 occupants. The Tel Aviv-based group Physicians for Human Rights said Israeli restrictions on ambulance movement were hindering the evacuation of the wounded.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops killed a senior Hamas activists in an exchange of fire in the town of Qalqilya.
Israel said it was “sickened” by comments from Ireland’s foreign minister, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, accusing the Jewish state of “reckless disregard for human life.”
“Ireland’s ambassador to Israel, Patrick Hennessy, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a meeting during which he was informed that Israel was sickened by the declarations” of Brian Cowen, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Cowen said on Wednesday Israel’s use of tanks and helicopters to disperse the peaceful protest in Rafah “was completely disproportionate to any threat faced by the Israeli military and that Israeli forces showed a reckless disregard for human life.”
— Additional input from agencies
