- PARIS (AFP) - Israel's air
strike on the Gaza Strip, which killed 15 people, most of them children,
was almost universally condemned by world leaders.
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- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke out almost immediately
after the night-time raid, scolding Israel for not taking steps to avoid
killing civilians.
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- "Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to
take all measures to avoid the loss of innocent life," UN spokesman
Fred Eckhard said.
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- The European Union, which belongs to the diplomatic "quartet"
aiming to relaunch the Middle East peace process along with the United
States, United Nations, and Russia, was even harsher in its condemnation.
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- "The military operation cannot be justified in any
circumstance and is a disproportionate attack," said a spokesman for
the European Commission, the EU's administrative arm.
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- "The European Union considers that all punitive
and collective measures are neither legitmate nor acceptable," he
added.
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- Around 140 people were also injured in the raid, when
an Israeli warplane fired a 1,000 pound (450 kilogram) missile into central
Gaza City, destroying five buildings and damaging nearly a dozen others.
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- EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and European Commission
President Romano Prodi also condemned the air raid, warning that it could
hamper tentative moves to end the heightened conflict that erupted between
Israel and the Palestinians in September 2000.
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- "This extra-judicial killing operation, which targeted
a densely populated area, comes at a time when both Israelis and Palestinians
were working very seriously to curb violence and restore co-operative security
arrangements," Solana said in a statement.
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- Britain's Foreign Office echoed those statements, calling
the raid "unacceptable and counterproductive" and urging Israel
to avoid action that was "disproportionate" and "excessive."
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- A French foreign ministry spokesman said Paris "firmly
condemns the raid" which "in no way contributes to a solution"
for peace.
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- But the harshest criticism came from Arab nations, with
Egypt calling the Israeli attack a "war crime" as the Palestinian
Authority said it was planning to file a complaint with the new International
Criminal Court over the raid.
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- "What happened yesterday in Gaza is a war crime,"
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said.
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- Maher charged that Israel used the raid to sabotage an
anticipated deal between the Palestinian leadership and the Hamas Islamic
militant group to stop suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.
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- Israel was seeking to scupper the deal because it "would
deny Israel pretexts it creates to continue its occupation" of Palestinian
territory, Maher said.
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- Maher also called on the United States, a long-time mediator
in the stalled Middle East peace process, to raise its voice and condemn
the raid.
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- "I demand that Washington condemn this action strongly
and take the necessary measures to stop these attacks," Maher said
in a joint press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
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- Saud warned Israel that "these atrocities"
would be recording against it and said that "we not only condemn (the
attack) but ask for tough measures against Israel and its crimes against
the Palestinian people."
-
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- And at his headquarters in Cairo, Arab League Secretary
Generl Amr Mussa called on the UN Security Council and human rights groups
to step in to the conflict.
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- UN human rights chief Mary Robinson condemned the "reckless
killing of civilians" and urged Israel to respect "its core standards
and values" and international humanitarian law.
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- Despite the chorus of criticism, Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat deplored Tuesday what he called "the silence of the international
community" over the raid.
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