The preliminary draft of the resolution expressed its grave concerns over the humanitarian suffering and the large number of civilian casualties that have resulted from the fighting between the two sides.

More than 750 Palestinians have been killed in the thirteen day military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The death count on the Israeli side has gone up to thirteen, three of them civilians and ten of them soldiers.

The U.N Security Council has not however specified a date for the voting on the resolution. The draft of the resolution says “stresses the urgency of, and calls for, an immediate, durable, and fully respected cease-fire which will lead to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”

In recent talks the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has also tried to broker in a cease fire between the two warring nations. His efforts have been commended in the resolution draft. The draft also asks that a safe passage should be given to aid workers so that humanitarian relief goods like food and water can be brought to the suffering people of Gaza. The people of Gaza are not only suffering a shortage of food and water rather they have been experiencing a shortage of medicines and electricity as well.

The Council has been wrangling over the precise wordings of the resolution. The Arab members wanted the wordings to be directed towards Israel to stop its attacks whereas the Western diplomats wanted to call upon both sides equally. A meeting that was to be held at 5:30 pm on Thursday was postponed by the U.N General Assemble in anticipation of a vote by the Security Council.

The assembly president Miguel d’Escoto commented in written statement “We will closely analyze the resolution and determine whether it is serious, and contemplates the pertinent measures — both to ensure the immediate cease-fire and the unimpeded access to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.”

The Israeli military has stated that’s its agenda in the current operation is to stop the rocket attacks which have been initiated by Hamas on southern Israel.

Joining voice with the rest of Europe, United States on Wednesday advised Israel to accept the ceasefire to the twelve day long offensive in Gaza, proposed by Egypt.

Israeli attack on Gaza however continued despite a three hour truce. The Israeli Government said they accepted the “principles” laid down in the truce proposal advocated by Egypt.  Main feature of the truce proposal is their denial to Hamas the facilities for rearming through the smuggling tunnels located in Egypt.

“The details however needs to be worked out”, official sources at Tel Aviv said.

On its part United State has been pressing Israel over hot line in the wake of proposed action by United Nations Security Council on Israeli attack.  653 Palestinians have reportedly being killed in the attack.

We are trying to move forward,” said a senior U.S. official traveling with Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State to New York where she hopes to push forward the truce plan.  The plan urges a stop to rocket attacks on Gaza by Israel and importing of weapons there.

In the meantime violence continued despite the assurance by Hamas that they are considering the proposals with the assistance of France as the peace broker. “We welcome the French-Egyptian initiative. We want to see it succeed,” said Mark Regev, representing the Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert.

After a pretty long silence the US President-elect Barrack Obama also mounted pressure on the Israeli regime saying that he was “deeply concerned”.  He assured that he would immediately take up the Middle East issues after he assumes office on January 20th.

“I would tackle not only the short term situation but building a process whereby we can achieve a more lasting peace in the region.” Obama said addressing a press conference. Such statement makes the Israeli war analysts believe that they are in with a deadline of 20th January, the date when the new President would be sworn in, to wrap up the Gaza campaign.

The present Bush administration in America also feels that the ceasefire in Gaza is urgently needed.  They however think that the talks were complicated by involvement of multiple parties in the issue.  “We are working to do it as fast as we possibly can”, Dana Perino, the spokeswoman for White House said in Washington to day.

Diplomats from around the world along with European leaders are desperately seeking ways to establish a cease fire in the region. Israel has however shown no signs of backing down even after the 10 day crippling assault on the Gaza strip. Israel refuses to accept any cease fire proposals until Hamas rocket firing on southern Israeli towns are not restricted. 

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu said speaking to Israeli TV that the ground phase of the operation that commenced on Saturday was going according to plan. He said that the Israeli forces were moving in towards the rocket launching sites causing severe blows to the militants. 

Gaza strip’s largest hospital named Shifa hospital said that it received no militant casualties on Monday. Rather the hospital was inundated with civilian casualties. The dead bodies were so many in number that two dead bodies were being made to fit in a single morgue drawer. With the hospital beds being fully occupied the wounded were being treated in the hall ways. 

The ten day operation from the Israeli forces has left over 550 Palestinians dead and over 2500 wounded. 200 of the total Palestinians killed in the operation were civilians.  According to the U.N officials 25% of the total population killed in the Israeli raid have been civilians. 

More than 20 Palestinian lost their lives in the Israeli offensive on Monday. Most of the deaths confirmed have been of civilians. In one attack three brothers were killed in their home outside the Gaza city.

In contrast Israel has lost only five of its people with one of them being a soldier. Amongst the brothers killed in Monday’s attack the youngest was only three years of age. 

A fierce battle took place between Hamas militants and Israel soldiers outside the Shajaiyeh neighborhood. The ground operation enabled Israeli soldiers to take control over three six story buildings in the outskirts. 

The Israeli air force and ground soldiers have shown no mercy to the Palestinians. They have not only attacked weapon storage sites and smuggling tunnels but also houses and mosques.

With troops moving in on foot the risk of civilian casualties increases. As it is the confrontation has cost over 430 Palestinian lives along with the death of four Israelis up till now.

Gaza is a densely populated region and a ground operation aimed at hunting down Hamas targets is bound to give rise to civilian casualties. At the same time however the Israeli military will also be exposed to new threats. Hamas has been in the region for almost two years within which it has managed to accumulate a considerable amount of ammunition. The world has been witnessing the kind of fire power that Hamas is equipped with in the recent rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli territory. Hamas has been making use of sophisticated long range missiles amidst the Israeli air strikes.

Hospitals in Palestine reported three civilian deaths overnight whereas the Hamas run television channel Al Aksa reported that five Israeli soldiers had been killed. The Israeli military did not confirm the claims made by Al Aksa and dismissed the effort as being a tactic to lower the military’s morale.

International pressure has mounted in the past couple of days urging both the sides to accept an immediate cease fire but such efforts have been shunned completely. Many European cities witnessed protests appealing to Israel to stop the bloody campaign against the Palestinians.

The White House has been rather conservative in restricting Israel from wreaking the havoc that it has been amongst the civilian population of Gaza. The most it could do was issue a statement urging Israel to “be mindful of the potential consequences to civilians.”

The Israeli military is however determined to continue its campaign until it gains control over the missile launching sites Hamas has been using to target southern Israel. Military officials have stated that their aim is not to reoccupy Gaza yet it is engaged in a grueling operation that has resulted in heavy loss of civilian lives.

International powers have tried to persuade Israel to agree to a truce but this request has been shunned in total at the moment. On the other hand Hamas has not given a positive response to the request of a cease fire.

Despite the international pressure the firing from both sides has intensified in the past couple of days. Yesterday Israel managed to bring down a mosque to rubble claiming it was one of the places that Hamas used to store rockets. On the flipside 60 rockets were fired into southern Israel from the Hamas militants.

The Israeli troops could be seen assembling their equipment and propping up their tanks just outside the Gaza border. An Israeli defense official spoke to the press saying that the military commanders will be moving forward in order to commence the ground operation.

Emergency consultations were sanctioned in by the U.N Security Council on Wednesday in order to discuss a legally binding and viable solution that could bring about a cease fire and a lasting truce in the region. The Arab League foreign ministers had held a meeting in Cairo and sent the Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz to take part in the consultation.

The diplomatic efforts made by the U.S and other world powers to pressurize both the sides to back down have been of no avail. The 48 hour cease fire proposal made by the French in order to allow relief goods to reach the suffering people of Gaza has also been shunned. According to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this was not the right time to consider such a proposal.

Turkey and Egypt are two Muslim nations considered to be on good terms with Israel made their own proposals to Israel and Hamas but were not paid any attention.

Israel has little hope to eliminate Hamas from its roots using air strike only as the guerilla soldiers are in hiding and know how to move about in the streets. Therefore a ground offensive is being initiated as it seems to be the only way in which Israel can do some serious damage to Hamas.

The rockets managed to take the lives of four Israelis along with one soldier whereas the number of those injured was counted as eight. On the opposite side the Israeli attacks have managed to claim 364 Palestinian lives with sixty four of them being civilians. 

On early Tuesday morning the Hamas government buildings were carpeted with sixteen bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes. The bombs managed to destroy the Gaza City complex completely setting it up in flames and reducing it to a pile of rubble. Forty people were injured during this attack.

A day before the focus of the Israeli attacks was the homes of Hamas field operatives. This attack was targeted at striking a blow at the very roots of Hamas. The defense minister of Israel has promised that the current attacks are going to be a “war to the bitter end against Hamas” and their allied militants. 

Three days into the attack Hamas has kept its rocket attacks on going. In fact the most recent attacks have revealed that Hamas is in possession of some more powerful rockets that can hit targets further into Israel. 

Monday night a missile managed to reach Ashdod which is at a distance of 23 miles from the Gaza strip. It managed to strike a bus stop resulting in the death of one woman and injuring others. 

A mortar strike also managed to claim the live of an Israeli soldier. Five others have also been injured and one is said to be in a critical condition quite likely to lose his life.

Hamas has also revealed statements saying that it has fired more than 43 home-made rockets along with seventeen longer range grads and six mortar shells. Hamas is also being supported by allied militant groups that are using their own fire power against Israel.

In its reactionary offensive Israel is targeting the Hamas foundation. The different strikes made by Israeli warplanes have managed to successfully damage many of Hamas’s strategic buildings but at the same time there have been enormous civilian casualties.

As the new Secretary of State in President Barrack Obama’s Government, she is faced with the daunting task of convincing the Arab world about America’s neutral stand in the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Most of the Arabian countries look at her motives with suspicion as they think she is more inclined towards Israel rather than being even handed on the issues.

One of the failures of her husband and former President of America, Bill Clinton, was the inability to find a permanent peace making solution in the Middle East towards the end of his presidency.

According to Shibley Telhami, Professor of Maryland University, the results of pole conducted in Arab countries early this year, indicated that Hillary Clinton was looked upon as someone who following the footsteps of her husband, may work for peace in Middle East.

“Bill Clinton had a much more positive image in the Middle East (than George W. Bush) and Hillary is seen in a similar light,” he said but also pointed out that her past supports could go against her in the Arabian context.

The task, however, does not seem to be easy as despite Clinton’s readiness to assume the role of peace broker, the recent violence combined with the election heats in Israel and Palestine could delay any meaningful deliberations.  The elections in these two countries are likely to take place in the next couple of months.

“There is too much blood spilled for this to end quickly.” said Telhami. According to Aaron Miller, Advisor to the six secretaries of State in the negotiations between Israel and Palestine commented that Hillary Clinton was both respected as well as controversial in the zone as she is considered to be a peace maker and at the same time pro-Israeli.

“She will have to do the heavy lifting but she must be empowered and backed up and supported by the president,” said Miller.  “Clinton needs to maintain a strong relationship with the new president to be effective”, he added.

Jeffrey White of the Washington Institute for Near East Policies sum up the situation saying that while Clinton is well versed in political and foreign issues, she is yet to be tested in crisis and the Israeli bombing of Gaza is a major crisis.

“She (Clinton) does not have a lot of experience in the Byzantine negotiations in the Arab world,” he said.

Hillary’s task is made even more difficult with the Bush Administration backing Israel’s actions in Gaza so far with the demands that Palestinian Islamist group Hamas stop rocket firing into Israel land and agree for a permanent truce.

Edward Walker, the former ambassador of US to Israel and Egypt reads Hillary’s position in the scenario as “There will not be a turnaround in U.S. policy. They are going to have the same problems and that is how you put Humpty Dumpty back together again.” said Walker.

In a statement the press office for the Secretary General was recorded as saying “The Secretary-General is extremely concerned at statements calling into question the continuation of the Egyptian-brokered calm in and around Gaza”.

The Secretary General has expressed his concerns over the escalating violence by saying that it would have dire consequences for the civilians of Israel as well as Gaza. The end of the truce will also jolt the political efforts that are being made in order to resolve the situation.

Ban made an appeal to make full efforts to sustain the calm that was experienced while the truce lasted. He also said that rocket attacks from Gaza need to be stopped and all acts of violence in the region need to be brought to an end.

Moments after the announcement of the end of the six month truce with Israel was announced by Hamas rockets were fired at Southern Israel by another smaller militant group. There were no casualties reported regarding the incident.

The weeks that followed the cancellation of the truce have seen an upsurge in the acts of violence taking place in the region. Around nine rockets were fired from the strip towards Southern Israel on Thursday. A day before Israel had carried out several airstrikes in which they managed to kill one Palestinian.

Israel has managed to cause significant damage to the people of Gaza by closing all the crossing points to Gaza through which humanitarian aid and other basic supplies reach the region.

The hopes for a Middle East peace deal that was being initiated by Palestinian president along with the US President seems to be fading as the time for George W. Bush to step down draws near without any significant efforts being made in that direction. The UN is calling upon both parties involved in the conflict to maintain decorum and curb the acts of violence so that a political solution to the problem can be achieved.