GAZA CITY: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged Israel to declare a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza as truce negotiations gathered momentum to end the Jewish state’s war on Palestinians.
Israeli forces, however, continued bombing and shelling civilians in the Gaza Strip. In one case, at least 10 people were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house during a funeral wake. Palestinian medical sources said 23 bodies were pulled from under the rubble of houses in the Tel El-Hawa neighborhood after the withdrawal of Israeli troops at dawn. A Health Ministry official put the Palestinian death toll since Dec. 27 at 1,136. Another 5,150 have been wounded.
UN chief Ban floated the idea of a unilateral cease-fire during a visit to the West Bank, but Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev shot it down. “I don’t believe that there’s a logical expectation in the international community that Israel should unilaterally cease fire while Hamas continues to target cities,” he said.
In Doha, Hamas leader in exile Khaled Meshaal told the opening session of an emergency conference on Gaza his group would not accept Israeli conditions for a truce and would continue fighting. “Despite all the destruction in Gaza, I assure you we will not accept Israel’s conditions for a cease-fire,” Meshaal said.
A senior Israeli negotiator told the Egyptian government that Israel rejects a one-year truce with Hamas and wants the truce to be open-ended. Amos Gilad said Israel would agree to open its borders with Gaza if Hamas released the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Shalit was captured by Palestinian fighters in 2006.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed a deal in Washington aimed at halting arms smuggling into Gaza as part of efforts to clinch a cease-fire. Rice said the deal “provides a series of steps that the US and Israel will take to stem the flow of weapons and explosives into Gaza.” Rice, who blamed Hamas rocket attacks for sparking the Israeli offensive, said the memorandum of understanding aimed to ensure that “Gaza can never again be used as a launch pad” for such attacks.
The understanding between the two countries will include intelligence sharing on arms smuggling and monitoring of smuggling routes into Gaza, an Israeli official said.
Addressing a meeting of Arab League’s Ministerial Council in Kuwait ahead of an economic summit, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal called on Israel to abide by a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire and lift the blockade of Gaza.
Options being considered by the council include a return to the Security Council to seek an executive resolution for the implementation of Resolution 1860 and legal action for war crimes, the prince said. He emphasized the importance of starting a comprehensive dialogue with US President-elect Barack Obama on the issue as soon as he assumes office and creating a fund for the reconstruction of Gaza.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel should be barred from the United Nations headquarters for ignoring the Security Council call. “Israel does not comply with the binding resolution of the United Nations concerning the cease-fire. This is a habit of Israel. Israel is a country that has not complied with hundreds of UN resolutions in the past,” Erdogan said in a speech to his party that was broadcast live on television. “I want to ask the United Nations — how can a country, which continuously ignores resolutions of the UN Security Council be allowed to enter through the gates of the United Nations (headquarters)?”
Meanwhile, Bolivia is preparing a request seeking to have Israel prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague over its actions in Gaza, officials in Geneva said. The South American state says it wants to muster support among regional peers for a bid to have “the Israeli political and military leaders responsible for the offensive on the Gaza Strip” brought to justice, said Sacha Llorenti, whose portfolio covers civil society.
— With input from agencies
