U.N. calls for immediate Gaza truce

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel pushed ahead with its two-week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip Friday, defying a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as "unworkable" and, noting Palestinians fired rockets at Israel Friday, said the army would go on defending Israelis.

"The firing of rockets this morning only goes to show that the U.N. decision is unworkable and will not be adhered to by the murderous Palestinian organizations," he said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel showed the U.N. resolution "cannot work" and that the army "would go on defending citizens."

As bombs blasted the coastal enclave for a 14th day, senior Israeli ministers met to consider the next move.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave an indication the guns were unlikely to fall silent: "Israel has acted, is acting and will act only according to its considerations, the security needs of its citizens and its right to self defence," she said.

Israel says it wants to stop rockets landing on its towns. At least 14 were fired Friday, fewer than the dozens Hamas was able to launch in the early days of the war. Hamas officials said they were also looking at the U.N. resolution.

Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the outskirts of the city of Gaza, residents said. Elsewhere, Palestinian medics said tanks shelled a house in Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip, killing six Palestinians from the same family.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Livni met but the vote in New York appeared to place little new pressure on them to halt attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians. Key ally the United States, abstained, noting talks on a truce were still under way under Egyptian mediation.

Olmert's security cabinet Wednesday put off a decision on whether to launch a massive escalation of the offensive on Hamas guerrillas by moving troops in a third phase deep into urban areas, a move that would mean calling in reservists. Officials said ministers were meeting again from noon (10 a.m. British time).

The onslaught in Gaza, where many civilians including children have been killed, has solid support among Israeli voters who go to the polls in a month. A poll Friday showed over 90 percent support among Israel's Jewish majority.

A poll showed that Defence Minister Ehud Barak's Labour party has held on to sharp gains it has made since war began, though it still trails Livni's Kadima, which is running close behind the right-wing Likud opposition. Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud's leader has also thrown strong support behind the war.

More than 18 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip Friday, medical workers said. They said some of the fatalities were civilians but gave no exact figures.

The U.N. said in a report that 30 Palestinians were killed earlier this week when the Israeli army sheltered dozens of civilians in a house which was later hit by shells.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, governed by Hamas's rival Fatah movement under President Mahmoud Abbas, have been enraged by the Israeli offensive, and Israeli forces and Abbas's police were on high alert Friday in case of violence around weekly prayers at mosques around midday.

Several thousand people demonstrated and burnt Israeli flags in Hebron, a Hamas stronghold in the West Bank.

The U.N. resolution spoke of a cease-fire that was not only "immediate" but also "durable and fully respected" -- language that chimes with Israeli and U.S. demands in those negotiations that Israel secure guarantees that its Hamas Islamist enemies will be unable to rearm by halting smuggling from Egypt.

France, which brokered a cease-fire proposal put forward by Egypt Tuesday, said the resolution complemented negotiations being mediated by Cairo but made clear it did not expect Israel to act immediately: "It's not the end of the story," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevalier told the BBC.

AIR STRIKES

The Israeli air force hit at least 50 targets across the enclave, including launching pads for rockets and facilities used to manufacture rockets, an army spokesman said.

Israel's military commanders appeared keen to pursue what was termed a third stage of the operation with additional ground troops being sent into the heart of Gaza's built-up areas to flush out more gunmen and to try to secure more gains.

An Israeli military official said Israel would cease fire for three hours from 1 p.m. (11 a.m. British time) Friday to transfer humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave and allow its residents to stock up on food and other supplies.

Gaza's Hamas rulers sent mixed signals about the resolution. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said the group did not recognise the resolution as it had not been consulted. However another spokesman said Hamas was "studying" the resolution.

The resolution, pressed for by Arab countries in the face of efforts by Britain, France and the United States for a more muted statement, called for arrangements to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza and for its borders to be opened.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "The United States thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation efforts in order to see what this resolution might have been supporting. And that is why we chose to abstain."

The resolution said there should be "unimpeded provision" and distribution of aid to the territory, home to 1.5 million people, many of whom are dependent on food assistance.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which distributes the vast majority of aid in Gaza, kept its operations suspended Friday after the death of one of its drivers in Israel's offensive. It was not clear when aid distribution would resume.

Hamas officials said the Palestinian death toll had risen to 783, of whom more than a third were children.

Ten soldiers have been killed in the campaign launched by Israel to crush Hamas forces and halt the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israel says it is doing what it can to avoid civilian casualties but accuses Hamas of deliberately placing its fighters close to homes and mosques.

Rockets have killed three Israeli civilians since the offensive began. Olmert said Thursday Israel's goal had not been achieved and a decision on further action lay ahead.

Israel has said it accepts the "principles" of a cease-fire proposal by Egypt and the European Union, and Washington has urged the Jewish state to study details of the plan.

Hamas, shunned by the West for espousing violence, said it was still considering the ideas. But the militants say they will never accept Israel, whose establishment amid conflict 60 years ago dispossessed and uprooted Palestinian people.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Sue Pleming at the United Nations and by Jerusalem bureau)