Israel rebuffs U.N. resolution, pursues Gaza war

With the Palestinian civilian death toll already in the hundreds, Israeli actions have drawn outraged denunciations from the Red Cross, U.N. agencies and Arab and European governments.

A U.N. agency said in a report that 30 Palestinians were killed on Monday, a day after the Israeli army herded dozens of civilians into a house which was later hit by shells.

An Israeli military spokesman denied that account.

"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) did not mass people into any specific building," Major Jacob Dallal said, adding that the military had not hit a building in the area on Monday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged independent investigations into this and other incidents, saying they "display elements of what could constitute war crimes."

Dallal also denied an accusation by UNRWA, the main U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, that Israeli fire had killed a driver in a clearly marked UNRWA convoy. The agency suspended some operations in Gaza after the driver's death on Thursday.

"The IDF did not shoot at that truck, period," Dallal said.

U.N. aid workers plan to resume their movements in Gaza as soon as possible after receiving Israeli assurances that they are not being targeted, a U.N. spokeswoman said in New York.

CEASEFIRE PLAN BOGS DOWN

Hamas wants any ceasefire deal to include the ending of Israel's crippling economic blockade of the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the territory.

Israel's key demands are for a complete halt to Hamas rocket fire and for international guarantees to stop the Islamist group rearming via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.

Regev said talks with Egypt over the ceasefire proposal would continue, but he did not say when.

The Egyptian initiative, also sponsored by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, may be in trouble, however.

"There is a growing sense that the Egyptian-French plan is not going to work," a senior European diplomat told Reuters.

European and Israeli diplomats said Egypt was objecting to proposals that foreign troops and technicians be stationed on its 15-km (9-mile) border with Gaza to prevent arms smuggling.

Instead, diplomats said, Egypt was ready to accept technical assistance for its own forces on the border. Israel says the Egyptians have failed in the past to prevent Hamas building up an arsenal of hundreds of Soviet-designed Katyusha missiles.