Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:18:32 GMT
 The UN Security Council meets to discuss the situation in Gaza at United Nations headquarters in New York. |
Foreign ministers from UN Security Council members and Arab states also called on both Israel and Hamas to declare a ceasefire.
"International monitoring mechanisms might prove necessary and we are willing to contribute to this," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who is presiding over a special Security Council meeting on the Gaza crisis.
He said France was awaiting Israel's response to a truce proposal announced by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have thrown their support behind the ceasefire proposal.
During the meeting, Abbas criticized Israel for ignoring calls from around the globe to end its bombardment of Gaza, which has killed hundreds of civilians.
"The Israeli machine of destruction continues to kill, to commit the most heinous of possible crimes, despite international unanimity, an unprecedented unanimity, in calling for an end of this massacre against innocent civilians that do not deserve such brutality," Abbas said.
On Tuesday, 43 civilians were killed and 100 wounded when the Israelis attacked a school in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
Medical officials in Gaza said the civilians had been sheltering at a United Nations school.
Click to access more links on Middle East issues on Darkwater
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 7, 2009
at Wednesday, January 07, 2009
and is filed under
Middle East
. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
comments feed
.
