Israel, Hamas ignore cease-fire resolution

Army attacks 70 Gaza sites

Palestinians threw stones at Israeli policemen in an East Jerusalem neighborhood yesterday. Hamas supporters clashed with members of the rival Fatah party during protests in the West Bank city of Ramallah against the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. (menahem kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM - Israel and Hamas ignored a UN cease-fire resolution yesterday as the Israeli army attacked 70 targets in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel from the beleaguered seaside enclave.

Thousands in Middle East, elsewhere decry offensive. A4

As fighting continued for a 15th day this morning, Gaza residents said Israeli warplanes attacked unoccupied buildings and sites in the southern town of Khan Younis, in Beit Lahiya, and around Gaza City. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

There was little indication yesterday that the international community or an Egyptian-backed peace initiative would bring a quick end to hostilities.

Hamas said it would not heed a resolution about which it was not consulted. Israel, charging that the UN action was unworkable, kept thousands of army reservists on alert and vowed to continue the offensive.

"The state of Israel has never agreed that any outside body would determine its right to defend the security of its citizens," said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He added the Army "will continue operations in order to defend Israeli citizens. . . . This morning's rocket fire against residents of the south only proves UN Security Council Resolution 1860 is not practical and will not be honored in actual fact by the Palestinian murder organizations."

Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri said the UN failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people.

"This resolution doesn't mean that the war is over," he told the satellite television channel al-Jazeera. "We call on the Palestinian fighters to mobilize and be ready to face the offensive, and we urge the Arab masses to carry on with their angry protests."

Israel was under increasing international pressure over a military campaign that has killed more than 780 Palestinians, at least one-third of them civilians, according to Gaza medical workers.

The UN, citing growing danger, on Thursday suspended the movements of its workers in Gaza, and the Israeli Supreme Court gave government officials four days to explain why the Army has delayed the evacuation of many wounded Palestinians to medical facilities.

UN relief officials have called for an investigation into the deaths of 30 Gaza civilians killed earlier this week when Israeli shells battered a compound where they had taken refuge after being ordered out of their homes in the Zeitoun district. John Holmes, UN chief of humanitarian aid programs, called the deaths "a particularly outrageous incident."

Israel's military said it was not aware of the specific incident but would not have deliberately targeted the building.

Israel reported that rockets launched by militants landed in the Israeli areas of Beersheba and Ashkelon. Since Israel began its air attacks on Dec. 27, Israeli deaths include at least nine soldiers and three civilians.

The offensive, Israel says, has been designed to halt the militant rocket attacks from Gaza, which Hamas seized control of in mid-2007 as a unity government with a rival Palestinian faction fell apart.

While Israeli officials quickly defied the UN resolution, the nation's media were reporting differences emerging within the government over how aggressive to be in the coming days. The ground invasion advanced quickly early on, but Israeli troops have not breached Gaza's most heavily populated urban areas, where sustained fighting could lead to higher casualties.

Israel's air and artillery attacks thundered across Gaza yesterday, stopping only for a few hours as part of a daily truce when both sides agree to hold fire while wounded Palestinians seek medical aid and families shop for food and supplies. In the northern town of Beit Lahia, six members of one family, including an infant, were killed when an air strike destroyed their home, according to witnesses and medical officials.

Roads were nearly deserted around the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, where Israeli forces clashed earlier this week with militants. Near a badly damaged school and six flattened houses, Mohammed Smeiro and his 12-year-old son scoured dried blood off the street. They said the blood belonged to two Palestinian cousins who were putting on veils when a missile exploded.

Israeli and Hamas officials in recent days have been shuttling to Cairo to meet with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman on a possible cease-fire deal. But neither side has embraced the idea.

Hamas wants the Israeli assault to stop and the blockade around Gaza lifted. Israel wants to be sure that militants will stop firing rockets into Israeli towns and that tunnels to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza are destroyed.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.