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Gaza violence worries UN
28/02/2008 10:33 - (SA)
New York - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed deep concern at mounting violence that has claimed civilian lives in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and voiced hope it would not derail the Middle East peace process.
"The Secretary General is deeply concerned at the loss of civilian life in southern Israel and Gaza and at the escalation of violence that has taken place today," his press office said in a statement.
Eleven Palestinians, including a six-month-old baby, were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday while Palestinian rockets killed an Israeli.
"These events underscore the urgent need for a calming of violence, and must not be allowed to deter the continuation of the political process," Ban said in the statement.
He slammed the rocket firing by Gaza-based Hamas militants which killed an Israeli civilian in the Israeli town of Sderot and urged "Hamas and other militant groups to cease such acts of terrorism".
But Ban also condemned the killing of four Palestinian children, including an infant, in Israeli strikes on Gaza and appealed to the Jewish state "to exercise maximum restraint and ensure respect for international humanitarian law so as not to endanger civilians".
Hamas claimed responsibility for what was the first killing of an Israeli by Gaza rocket fire since May 2007 - before the movement seized power in Gaza in June - saying it had been to avenge the death of its militants.
Israel in turn launched further deadly air strikes following the Israeli fatality caused by a rocket that slammed into a college on the outskirts of Sderot.
The deaths brought to around 211 the number of people killed since Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks in November, most of them Gaza militants, according to an AFP count.
- AFP
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