Protests condemn Israel offensive

As international protests against the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip continue, Israel is facing a fresh round of condemnation from around the world.

The protests followed on the heels of the UN Security Council's failure to issue a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire despite hours of closed-door talks.

On Sunday the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union pledged an additional $4.2 million in emergency aid for Gaza and called on Israel to respect international law.

"Blocking access to people who are suffering and dying is also a breach of humanitarian law," Louis Michel, EU's humanitarian aid commissioner, said in a statement.

"I call on the Israeli authorities to respect their international obligations and ensure a 'humanitarian space' for the delivery of vital relief," he said.

Protester killed

In the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians rallied for a third day of protests, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a man, Palestinian medical sources said.

Mufid Saleh Walweel, 22, was shot in the head in the West Bank city of Qalqilya during a protest against Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip, they said.

There were also protests in Turkey, where organisers claimed 700,000 people had turned out for an anti-Israeli demonstration.

Protesters called on Turkey, Israel's only Muslim ally, to re-evaluate ties with the Jewish state if it does not halt its incursion in the Gaza Strip.

In Greece, demonstrators set fire to banks, threw rocks and fired flares at police in the capital Athens.

In Morocco, a crowd of 40,000 gathered in Rabat to condemn "the silence of Arab regimes".

Mustapha Ramid of the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, said "the blood of Gazan martyrs has mobilised the masses in Morocco and throughout the rest of the Arab world".

Several countries have called on Israel to exercise restraint as the civilian death toll continues to rise.

Russia on Sunday said it was "extremely concerned" by Israel's land operation in Gaza and said it was sending a special envoy to the region to help bring about a ceasefire by both sides.

Thousands of demonstrators in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, denounced Israel as a "terrorist" force and called on the government to send troops to fight Israeli forces.

"Indonesia's military must go to war against Israel, not just as peacekeepers. We ask the government to send troops there, not just medicine," Farid Wadjdi, the local head of the Hizbut Tahrir movement, was quoted as saying by news website Detikcom.

Iranian warning

Iran, which has seen angry protests since the Israeli raids began last week, also added its voice.

Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, praised Palestinian resistance against the ground invasion.

"Zionists should know that Gaza will become their cemetery," he said on Sunday.

Even Egypt, which has faced criticism from the Arab and Muslim world, condemned the Israeli incursion, and called on the UN to work to end the violence.

In Britain, where one of the world's largest demonstrations against the Israeli incursion took place on Saturday, Gordon Brown, the prime minister, took a more measured approach, saying that Israel's ground offensive had created a "very dangerous moment" before calling for increased efforts on both sides to secure a ceasefire.

"First we need an immediate ceasefire, and that includes a stopping of the rockets into Israel. Secondly, we need some resolution of the problem over arms trafficking into Gaza and, thirdly, we need the borders and the crossings open and that will need some international solution."

For its part, the US state department said it told the Israeli government that any military action should be "mindful of the potential consequences to civilians".

It also condemned Hamas, saying the group was holding the people of Gaza "hostage" and contributing to a "very bad daily life" for the coastal territory's residents.

Civilian deaths mount in Gaza war

Reported by Al Jazeera and agencies

At least a dozen Palestinian civilians have been killed on Monday as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the Gaza Strip, medical sources say.

The latest total death count in Gaza stands at 531 people killed across 10 days, with more than 80 deaths since the ground offensive began two days ago.

Troops, backed by air and naval support, are reported to have surrounded Gaza City. And with soldiers positioned on the north-south road at Netzarim, the besieged territory has been split into two, effectively blocking Palestinian supply lines.
Overnight and Monday morning air raids were reported in open fields in east Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and in the Shati refugee camp.

Among the dead was a family of seven at Shati refugee camp, who were killed by navy shelling off the coast of Gaza.
Three siblings of one family and a girl and her grandfather also died in Zeitoun neighbourhood during artillery shelling.

Emergency medical workers attempting to reach the wounded on the frontline, themselves become targets when an Israeli air raid killed four paramedics on Sunday. Ambulances have also been hit in the attacks, Palestinian sources said.

Witnesses in eastern Gaza told Al Jazeera that soldiers had carried out house to house raids in some urban areas.

Israeli government officials say they are not targeting civilians, only seeking to halt rocket fire from the Palestinian Hamas movement governing Gaza.

The armed wing of Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions, however, have continued to launch rockets into southern Israel, despite more than a week of aerial bombardment by Israel and the ground offensive.

One Israeli soldier has been confirmed killed in the Gaza assault so far, with at least 49 others wounded. Four Israelis have also been killed by Palestinian rockets.

The International Red Cross and world leaders have appealed to both Israel and Hamas to stop targeting civilians and work to restore a ceasefire.

Diplomatic efforts

On the diplomatic front, a Hamas official said a delegation would head to Cairo on Monday, "answering an Egyptian invitation to hold discussions" on a ceasefire.

The talks are set to coincide with the arrival of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, in the region, to push for a European-backed ceasefire.

The UN Security Council is also set to meet on Monday to discuss the crisis following an emergency session on Sunday that failed to produce a resolution or even a statement calling for a halt to the fighting.

Israel's ground offensive launched on Saturday followed eight days of intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, purportedly aimed at ending cross-border rockets being fired by Hamas fighters from the territory into southern Israel.

Humanitarian crisis

Fears of a humanitarian crisis have also grown in recent days, as the strip, home to 1.5 million people, is already suffering shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies due to a two-year economic blockade imposed by Israel.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said on Sunday its medical emergency team had been prevented for a third day from entering the territory.

Egypt has also completely closed the Rafah crossing, cutting off aid supplies to the territory. 

The UN has warned that there were "critical gaps" in aid reaching Gaza, despite claims from Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, that there was no crisis and that aid was getting through.

Christopher Gunness, the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) spokesman, said the idea that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, was absurd.

"The organisation for which I work - Unrwa - has approximately 9,000 to 10,000 workers on the ground. They are speaking with the ordinary civilians in Gaza... People are suffering. A quarter of all those being killed now are civilians. So when I hear people say we're doing our best to avoid civilian casualties that rings very hollow indeed."

About 250,000 people in the northern part of Gaza are also reported to be without electricity. The main power plant has been shut down for lack of fuel due to Israel's blockade.