UNITED NATIONS (Agencies)
The Untied Nations Security Council were set to attempt fresh talks on Friday after previous talks failed to agree on a compromise statement urging an end to Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip and to the rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
After all day talks on Thursday, by U.N. experts and ambassadors, the U.S. remained adamant about its objections to a text accepted by the council's 14 other members.
The United States, a staunch ally of Israel, insists that the crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza is a self-defense move in the face of rockets fired from the impoverished territory controlled by Hamas.
U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said that his delegation would be prepared to accept "a balanced, credible, constructive statement that looks at this issue realistically," including condemning the rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.
Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman for his part dismissed the whole debate as a "futile waste of time" that only serves "to reward Hamas."
"Israel should take note that 14 members of the Security Council, a significant number of them friends of Israel, are saying that this humanitarian situation in Gaza cannot be tolerated," the Palestinian observer to the U.N., Ryad Mansour, hit back.
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari accused the United States of trying to politicize a humanitarian issue and of "trying to turn the victims into victimizers and the victimizers into victims."
After consulting with Washington, the U.S. delegation on Thursday put forward a series of oral amendments, including a call for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006 and a condemnation of terrorism under all its forms.
But most of these amendments were deemed irrelevant and unacceptable by Arab countries which feel strongly that the council has to react to what they view as the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents by Israel in reprisals for the rocket attacks. |
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Chaos in Gaza Meanwhile, Gazans rushed into Egypt as Hamas militants used a bulldozer to try to open a new passage through Gaza's breached border fence with Egypt after Egyptian troops tried to close off the area.
Gunfire could be heard as thousands of Palestinian onlookers cheered on the militants as they rammed the chain-link and barbed-wire fence at the crossing near Rafah in southern Gaza.
Cranes lifted camels, cows and motorcycles into Gaza as thousands scrambled to buy supplies in fear that breaches blown in the border would soon be sealed.
Gazan men heaved sheep and mattresses over a concrete wall at one border point. Young men helped women and the elderly scale the wall to buy food or medicine.
"They said on TV that Egyptian security is going to start kicking people out, so I wanted to come as soon as possible. But I think it's impossible for security to do anything. Are they going to kick thousands of people out?" said Gaza teacher Atta Darwish, 47, as he entered Egypt.
Camouflaged Egyptian forces in riot gear leaned on plastic shields nearby, taking no action to stop Gazans crossing from the Hamas-controlled coastal strip.
At another crossing, Egyptian forces tried to use barbed wire and water cannons to keep the Gazans back, but hundreds poured over after militants flattened parts of a fence there.
Security sources said the number of openings would make it hard for Egypt to restore control over the border. |
