World horrified by Israeli killings in Gaza

MIDDLE EAST: The world reacted with horrified shock on Wednesday to an Israeli army attack on Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip that killed 18 civilians, eight of them children.

Condemnations poured in from the United Nations, the European Union, the Middle East and Europe over what Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called a "black day".

Of the quartet overseeing the moribund Middle East peace process - the EU, the UN, Russia and the United States - only Washington refrained from criticism.

The White House said it "regretted" the deaths and placed the onus on the Palestinians not to exact revenge. "The response to the loss of innocent lives is not go out and take revenge ... on other innocents," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said after Palestinian radicals threatened suicide attacks on Israel.

The UN special envoy for the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, said he was "deeply shocked and appalled" by the Israeli shellings in the town of Beit Hanun, which killed five Palestinian men, five women and eight children.

De Soto urged Israel "to call off these and other military operations without delay" and appealed to Palestinians to cease firing rockets into Israeli territory.

The European Union said the Israeli onslaught was "a profoundly shocking event" and also demanded a halt to its military operations. The 22-nation Arab League called an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers.

"These massacres of children, women and civilians are unjustified and incomprehensible and unexpected," Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said. "Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories have gone too far." Israel's Arab neighbours reacted sharply.

Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned the "horrible massacre" and pledged to "exert all the efforts necessary to stop the Israeli military operations".

Syria accused Israel of "state terrorism" and urged the UN Security Council to "punish Israel for its repeated crimes".

Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, joined Britain, Italy, Russia and Turkey in rebuking it for using excessive force.

"This immoral and inhumane attack ... constitutes a violation of all international laws and norms," Cairo said. "This behaviour does not help achieve security or peace and it cannot be justified under any circumstance."

Britain concurred: "It is hard to see what this action was meant to achieve and how it can be justified," said Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. "Israel must respect its obligation to avoid harming civilians." Russia said Israel's attacks went "beyond the stated aim of preventing rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza".

And Turkey - which signed a military cooperation deal with Israel in 1996 - declared: "Israel's disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force against rocket attacks is not conducive to permanent security and stability in the region."

The EU said Israel had "a right to defend itself but not at the price of the lives of the innocent", while the International Red Cross (ICRC) stressed that international humanitarian law "strictly prohibits" attacks on civilians and homes.

All sides urged Palestinian militants to show restraint too, with Moscow pointing out that firing rockets at Israel would only provoke new military ripostes. But the reaction from the belligerents themselves gave little cause for hope. Israel voiced regret over the Gaza deaths but vowed to continue its offensive. And Hamas's exiled political leader Khaled Meshaal warned the Islamist Palestinian movement would take revenge.

Israeli leaders should be tried for "war crimes" over the shelling, he said, accusing the US administration of joint responsibility with the Jewish state for the "odious massacres".

Israel began its offensive in Gaza after Palestinian militants abducted one of its soldiers in June.

Jerusalem, Thursday, AFP