Ban Ki Moon Condemns Israel After Further Attacks on Gaza. Peace Talks Called Off.

Excerpt Reuters report "U.N. chief condemns Israel after bloody day in Gaza ":

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using "excessive" force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s.

Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gaza's Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.

The 1.5 million Palestinians crammed into the blockaded, 45 km (30-mile) sliver of coast, enjoyed a relative respite early on Sunday from Israeli air strikes and raids. Two Israeli soldiers died in a ground assault on Saturday. An Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket in a border town on Wednesday.

"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children ... I call on Israel to cease such attacks," said Ban.

"I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism," he said.

AP report "Israeli aircraft target Hamas office " says:

Responding to the bloodletting, the moderate Palestinian leadership based in the West Bank suspended U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Israel. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to arrive this week, but instead of promoting peace talks, she likely will try to put out the latest fire.

I can hardly wait for the "talking points" fed to Condi for this disaster.  But can she top "Birth pangs of a new Middle East?"

The report linked above also notes: 

The moderate Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, which is locked in a fierce rivalry with Hamas, called Israel's assault a "holocaust" and "genocide" and suspended peace talks.

"For the time being, the negotiations are suspended because we have so many funerals," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday. It was unclear when the talks, relaunched last November at a U.S.-hosted summit, would resume.

Another excerpt from the AP report available above:

Olmert's defense minister, Ehud Barak, said an even broader Gaza operation was in the cards, aimed at crushing militant rocket squads but also to "weaken the Hamas rule, in the right circumstances, even to bring it down."

Israel regularly clashes with Gaza rocket squads, but intensified its operations after militants fired salvos last week into Ashkelon, a city of 120,000. By targeting Ashkelon, some 11 miles north of Gaza, Hamas added pressure on Israeli leaders to exact a high price for the increasing sense of insecurity felt in southern Israel.

Haniyeh's office was just one of about a dozen targets Israeli aircraft and ground troops struck before dawn.

Overnight, a 14-year-old Palestinian girl and five militants died of their wounds, and four Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids, including the baby girl, who died from shrapnel wounds.

The bodies of two women also were unearthed from the rubble of an earlier Israeli airstrike, bringing the total death toll from the operation to 66 since late Friday.

tags: israel  gaza  palestine  condoleeza rice  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit