U.N. chief condemns Israel after bloody day in Gaza

[Attero Dominatus]

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using "excessive" force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s.

Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gaza's Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.

The 1.5 million Palestinians crammed into the blockaded, 45 km (30-mile) sliver of coast, enjoyed a relative respite early on Sunday from Israeli air strikes and raids. Two Israeli soldiers died in a ground assault on Saturday. An Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket in a border town on Wednesday.

"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children ... I call on Israel to cease such attacks," said Ban.

"I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism," he said.

But with public anger boiling in Israel, there was no sign the government was ready to call off an offensive that took troops deeper into Gaza on Saturday and in larger numbers than at any time since Israel ended a 38-year occupation in 2005.

The Islamist Hamas movement, which seized control of Gaza last June by routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces, vowed to maintain what it says is a self-defense strategy unless Israel agrees to end all military action.

Areas from which Hamas has launched rockets that have killed three Israelis in the past year saw heavy clashes on the ground on Saturday and air strikes continued to pound buildings and homes that Israel said were used by militants. In some of these attacks, children as young as six months have been killed.

Israel says militants use the population as cover by firing from built-up areas and blamed Hamas for the civilian deaths -- at least 30 occurred on Saturday.

What part of Hamas uses human shields does the Useless Nations not understand? If Hamas did not fire rockets, then none of this would be happening.

More: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2868601720080302?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

[Airwolf]

But its ok for Hamas, Islamic Jihad,The PLO,PLP and all the rest of the worlds terrorist to kill as they please.

[Mr Mannn]

Headlines:
UN Condemns Israel After Bloody Day in Gaza.
Hamas Launches 80 Missiles into Israel in a Single Day. UN Condemns Israel.
Israel Wins Soccer Match with Spain. UN Condemns Israel
Israel saves life of Palestinain Child. UN Condemns Israel
Truce Signed. Hostilities Cease. UN Condemns Israel
Arabs Break truce kill 20 Israelis. UN Condemns Israel

See a pattern here?
after a point, it just gets monotonous.

[asdf2231]

**** Palestine and **** the Palestinians.

Seriously.

If they have a problem with the "Occupation" of Palestinian land maybe they could take it up with Syria which encompasses a huge chunk of what used to be Palestine.

Send the Israeli's more cluster munitions. 

[Wretched Excess]

and here I was thinking that the new(ish) UN SecGen perhaps wasn't an idiot.  nay, it appears that he isn't any different from his predecessors.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children ...

It's ironic the UN bemoans the plight of Palestinian children on the day a ballistics expert testifies that Palestinians--not Israelis--more than likely murdered Mohammed al-Dura.