Israel warns of ground offensive as jets strike Gaza, UN calls for end

Hamas, an Islamist group in charge of the coastal enclave Israel quit in 2005,  responded by firing rockets the deepest yet into Israel, with one hitting without causing casualties not far from Ashdod, home to Israel’s second-largest port some 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Gaza, AFP reported citing medics.Â

 

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed to expand the mammoth bombing campaign, unleashed in retaliation for ongoing militant rocket fire.  Â

 

"The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will expand and deepen its operations in Gaza as much as necessary," he told reporters before a cabinet meeting.

 

"If it’s necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so," his spokesman quoted him as saying earlier.

 

The Israeli cabinet gave the green light to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers, a senior official told reporters after the meeting.

 

Israeli television said the army had begun concentrating ground forces near the tiny Palestinian enclave, where medics said at least 282 people were killed and more than 600 wounded since early on Saturday.

 

"Right now, we are not considering an end to the fighting," Israeli Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel said on Israel Radio. "We have the time, patience and means ... to return life in southern Israel to normal."

Israel launched air strikes on Gaza for a second day on Sunday in one of the bloodiest days in 60 years of conflict.

U.N. CALLS FOR END

Dozens of Israeli armored vehicles massed along the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion and the U.N. Security Council called early on Sunday for a halt to the violence.

"The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate halt to all violence," said a statement read to reporters by Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica, president of the council.

"The members called on the parties to stop immediately all military activities."

Diplomats said the Security Council meeting had been convened at the request of Libya, the only Arab country on the council.

The statement, agreed upon after four hours of closed-door council discussions, called on all parties to address "the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza."

It urged them to take necessary measures, including the opening of border crossings, to ensure Gaza's people were supplied with food, fuel and medical treatment.

Council members "stressed the need for the restoration of calm in full" to open the way for a Palestinian-Israeli political solution.

ARAB LEADERS TO MEET

Israel's air strikes on Gaza will not derail Gulf Arab leaders' plans to sign monetary union pacts at a summit next week but the issue will share the spotlight at their discussions, Omani hosts said on Sunday.

 

"The issue (Gaza) will impose itself on the agenda. The events of yesterday will have their deserved place in the discussions," Information Minister Hamad al-Rashdi told Reuters.

 

But Gulf Arab rulers gathering on Monday are still expected to approve a long-planned pact to take them one step closer to issuing a single currency.

 

"I don't think the agenda will be derailed," Abdulmalik al-Hinai, undersecretary for economic affairs at Oman's Ministry of National Economy, told Reuters.

 

The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Washington's regional allies, on Saturday described the Israeli attacks as "barbaric" and "ugly", and Saudi Arabia urged the United States to intervene to end the strikes.

 

The U.S. administration said Palestinian militant group Hamas was responsible for "breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza".

 

The GCC is a loose political and economic alliance of six oil-producing nations -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.

 

The meeting could be followed by an Arab summit on Friday, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said, citing an Arab League official.

 

The Arab League has delayed until Wednesday an emergency foreign ministers' meeting called to take a common position on the raids because many of them were busy in separate meetings of two Arab regional groups -- the GCC and the Maghreb Union.