Middle East: Security Council passes cease-fire resolution

U.N. suspends aid deliveries citing Israeli attacks

| Washington Post

1/8/2009 -

JERUSALEM — The U.N. Security Council on Thursday adopted a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, hours after the United Nations announced it would suspend all humanitarian aid deliveries in the territory, citing Israeli attacks on its facilities and personnel.

The 15-nation council adopted the resolution by a 14-0 vote. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cast the sole abstention but said the United States supports the text and objectives of the resolution.

The resolution demands an "immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza," according to U.S. and Arab officials. It marked a sharp reversal by the Bush administration, which had refused to allow passage of a cease-fire resolution without binding assurances that Hamas would halt its rocket attacks against Israel.

The resolution expresses "grave concern" over the "deepening humanitarian crisis" in Gaza, and it calls for more international aid and "unimpeded" distribution of food, fuel, medical treatment and other humanitarian assistance. The text makes no mention of Hamas's practice of launching missiles into Israeli territory. Instead, it "condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism."

The suspension of aid deliveries by the United Nations is likely to deepen the crisis in Gaza, where more than half of the territory's 1.5 million people live on food aid and where water, power, medical supplies and cooking gas are already in short supply. It also deepens a bitter standoff between the Israeli government, which continued to bombard Gaza with airstrikes Thursday, and humanitarian groups that say Israel has made it impossible to distribute badly needed aid in the beleaguered territory.

"We are perfectly prepared to take responsible risks in this conflict zone," said John Ging, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency's top official in Gaza. But it is "totally and wholly unacceptable," he said, that Israeli forces are "firing at our workers."

Israel has denied the charge and says Hamas is the one obstructing aid.

The Palestinian death toll stood at more than 760 Thursday, with more than 3,100 people injured, health officials in Gaza said. The United Nations has said a third or more are civilians.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza on Thursday, bringing the total since the start of the ground operation to nine. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets since the offensive on Gaza began Dec. 27.

The U.N. decision came after a convoy of its vehicles was fired on Thursday by Israeli forces during a mission to recover the body of a U.N. worker who had been killed in a previous Israeli attack, according to UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.

The incident occurred during a three-hour period in which Israel said it would pause its offensive to allow humanitarian supplies to be delivered. It followed the death Thursday morning of a driver for the United Nations who was shot despite Israeli assurances that it was safe to travel.

Gunness said the locations of U.N. facilities and the movements of its workers are communicated to the military, and that Israel is either targeting aid workers or being reckless.

About 500,000 people in Gaza are believed to be without running water, and the sewage system is on the verge of collapse because of a lack of electricity.