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UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council early Sunday weighed a non-binding statement that would call for an immediate end to the deadly Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip as well to the rocket attacks on Israeli territory that triggered them.
The compromise statement put forward by Russia and broadly acceptable to the UN Arab group would express "serious concern at the escalation of the situation" in Gaza and urge Israel to "halt its military operations in Gaza."
It would also call for an "immediate cessation of rocket attacks on the Israeli territory from Gaza" and for "an immediate opening of the border crossings into Gaza for an unrestricted humanitarian access, including supplies of food, fuel and provision of medical treatment."
Israel imposed a blockade after Hamas seized power in Gaza last year, but let in dozens of truckloads of humanitarian aid on Friday.
Earlier Saturday, Israeli warplanes hammered targets of the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza in retaliation for rocket fire, killing at least 230 people in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.
The council's 15 envoys were meeting behind closed doors in emergency consultations called by Libya, the lone Arab member of the council, in response to the Israeli air raids.
"Our main objective is an immediate ceasefire," said Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the UN.
Ryad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the UN, echoed that view, describing the Israeli strikes as 'a threat to international peace and security...that needs to be stopped immediately."
"There is no justification for slaughtering hundreds of Palestinian civilians," he added.
Ahmed Gebreel, a spokesman for Libya's UN mission, said the US delegation appeared to oppose the Russian compromise draft in its current form.
"The Americans wanted to have a reference to Hamas and the rockets and they named Hamas. This was not acceptable to the Russians and it will not be acceptable to us (the Arabs)," he added.
Gebreel foresaw two possible outcomes: either adoption by consensus of a non-binding statement or an open meeting at the request of the Arab group.
In the event the statement is adopted overnight, the Libyan diplomat warned that "if the Israeli aggression continues (Sunday), we will come back to the council with another proposal, possibly a resolution."
But in a letter to the current president of the Security Council, Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica, Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev argued that her country was acting in self-defence.
"No country would allow continuous rocketing of its civilian population without taking the necessary actions to stop it. Israel expects the understanding and support of the international community to its actions," she added.
She insisted that Hamas "holds the sole responsibility for the latest events in Gaza."
The United States, Israel's main ally and a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, agreed.
"If Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel, then Israel would not have a need for strikes in Gaza," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters. "What we've got to see is Hamas stop firing rockets into Israel."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed deep concern about the escalating violence in Gaza.
"We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there. The ceasefire must be restored immediately and fully respected," she said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply alarmed" by the bloodshed in Gaza and appealed for "an immediate halt to all violence."
Ban made frantic phone calls to world leaders to try to defuse the crisis.
He contacted Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.
Meanwhile the president of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, said through his spokesman that he was cutting short his holiday in Nicaragua and would return "as soon as possible."
"He is extremely worried by the situation," his spokesman, Enrique Yeves, told AFP. "He thinks it is time for the international community to act strongly."
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "Operation Cast Lead" against Hamas, which has also left some 700 wounded, will continue "as long as necessary."
And in Damascus, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel and promised new suicide attacks.
Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack in Israel since January 2005.
- AFP/yb
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