Jordan OK with forcing end to Israeli ops

[mexika]

Jordan OK with forcing end to Israeli ops
Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:18:11 GMT

Israel has been targeting the Gaza Strip in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 1860.
King Abdullah II says the world must force Israel to halt its operations in Gaza if Tel Aviv does not live up to current expectations.

"Israel should immediately abide by UN Security Council Resolution 1860 and should stop its aggression on the Gaza Strip," the Jordanian monarch said on Sunday.

Two weeks into Israel's Operation Cast Lead, the United Nations Security Council passed a nonbinding resolution that calls for an "immediate" and "durable" ceasefire in Gaza and a "full withdrawal" of Israeli troops.

Tel Aviv, however, has ignored the resolution and continues to pound the coastal enclave.

Israel has also imposed a blockade on Gaza in the past 18 months and has thus prevented necessary humanitarian aid and assistance from reaching the 1.5 million people inside the strip -- nearly twice the size of Washington DC.

"The Israeli government should also lift the siege on the Palestinian people and allow humanitarian aid and medical supplies into Gaza," commented the king during a meeting with Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas.

The Jordanian added that the international community is duty-bound to force Israel to implement the resolution if necessary.

"The international community has the responsibility to force Israel to implement Resolution 1860," a Sunday palace statement also quoted the king as saying.

Jordan on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Israel in an act of protest against the ongoing massacre of Gazans.

Various anti-Israel demonstrations have been staged in Jordan since Tel Aviv began its deadly offensive into the Gaza Strip on December 27.

On Friday, the protesters near the heavily fortified Israeli embassy in Amman's Rabia district hurled stones at police and chanted anti-Israeli slogans.

Israeli forces continued operations inside Gaza on Monday, attacking a children's hospital in Gaza. There have been no reports on the casualties of the strikes.

Despite sending thousands of reserve soldiers to invade Gaza City on Sunday, Israeli troops and tanks have been kept outside the city by resistance fighters, Press TV correspondent Akram al-Satarri has reported.

Israeli air and ground operations in Gaza have so far killed at least 900 Palestinians and wounded 4000 others, many of whom were women and children.

The recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the latest of a series which began when world powers created Israel in 1948 under the Zionist slogan of a 'land without a people and a people without a land'.

The establishment of Israel in the Middle East was carried out in compensation for the hardships and suffering imposed on the Jews of Europe due to anti-Semitism in the continent.

Zionists benefited by gaining power over the native land of the Palestinians, but the establishment and the subsequent terror attacks against the Palestinian population gave rise to the philosophy of resistance and in recent years armed retaliation.

According to Tel Aviv, however, the war on Gaza is aimed at ending rocket attacks against Israeli settlers, toppling Hamas and preventing the resistance group from rearming.

Hamas, on the other hand, demands a cessation of Israeli attacks and the opening of the Gaza border -- which has been closed due to the 18-month blockade imposed on the strip by Tel Aviv.

MT/AA