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.

There has been a slight progress in the diplomatic efforts that were being made by international forces regarding brokering a cease fire in the region. The U.S finally decided to back up a cease fire proposal made by Egypt and France.

Despite holding several meetings the U.N Security Council has not been able to come to common terms regarding a cease fire solution. On a separate plane the U.N Ambassador of Egypt Maged Abdelaziz said that representatives of Israel, Hamas along with Palestinian Authority will be conducting a meeting with Egyptian officials in the city of Cairo on Thursday.

Israel war planes dropped leaflets warning civilians to leave the area “because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons.” This was followed up by air strikes that left 29 people dead in the region.

It has now been 12 days since the brutal Israeli onslaught has been going on in Gaza and the death toll has risen to almost 700 Palestinians and ten Israelis. Over five thousand people have fled their homes in the border areas in order to take refuge in two U.N schools that have been transformed into shelters. 

The fighting that took place on Wednesday brought to light the attempts of both the sides to strike as much to the opposition before a truce is brokered in. 

A resident of the Gaza-Egypt border Fida Kishta says “I feel like the ground is shaking when we hear the shelling. People are terrified,” Sixteen empty houses have been destroyed in the region from Israeli air strikes.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said acknowledging the efforts of some of the international forces “We are very much applauding the efforts of a number of states, particularly the effort that President (Hosni) Mubarak has undertaken on behalf of Egypt, we’re supporting that initiative.”
By and large the Israeli army did not allow journalists to make their way into Gaza but on Wednesday it gave permission to two TV teams to accompany the soldiers patrolling through the region. The footage captured some of the damage that has been caused during the twelve day attacks.

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.

This was the first public address made by George W. Bush concerning the issue and he made the speech on his weekly taped radio address. The bloodiest siege experienced by the Mideast since decades has now been going on for over a week. Israeli airstrikes have splattered Gaza with numerous bombs targeting Hamas members. In retaliation rocket firing into southern Israel from Hamas has intensified.

Bush said during the weekly address “The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected. Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.”

The weekly address is made public on Sunday but this week the White House released it a day earlier due to the sensitivity of the situation at hand and the urgency with which it needs to be handled. Although Bush is still in the driving seat when it comes to the U.S leadership role the administration was looking towards president elect Barack Obama to make his contribution. 

U.S secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has been making intense efforts to get various diplomatic forces together in order to handle the situation. She was also responsible on informing the President regarding the developments that have been taking place in Gaza. 

The latest offensive has left over four hundred Palestinians and four Israelis dead in a matter of one week. One quarter of the Palestinians killed in the Israeli airstrikes are civilians, women and children included. 

Bush and Rice have been engaged in getting the different nations of the world to come together and search for a lasting solution to the Mideast problem. Bush was not at all keen on criticizing Israel for its airstrikes despite the heavy loss of civilian lives saying that it was an attack in response to the rocket attacks on its people.

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 foreign minister of France proposed the 48 hour cease fire which has been taken under consideration by the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The Israeli government officials have gotten together to discuss the proposal along with other steps that can be taken to curb the current situation. The details of the discussions have not yet been made public.

Leaders of the Middle East have been called upon by the American President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in order to put forward for a long lasting solution to the problem starting from an immediate truce. 

The Quartet of world powers also conducted a conference the outcome of which was the proposal of the 48 hour cease fire. The international powers that are exercising their pressure for a cease fire include the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia. 

Based on humanitarian grounds the European Union has urged Israel to reopen its borders with the Gaza strip in order to allow medical aid and food supplies to go through to the suffering Palestinians. The statement made by Paris has not focused on blaming a particular side for giving rise to the current problem at hand. 

The Israeli government on the other hand has been conducting talks focusing on initiating a ground offensive. They plan to draw upon 2500 reserve soldiers in case they decide to launch the ground operation. A call up of 67000 soldiers was issued earlier this week. 

A four hour meeting was conducted between the Israeli officials responsible for making the calls but no details of the meetings were made public as the issue at hand is very sensitive. It has however been released on the basis on anonymity that Israel wants a solid word from Hamas that it would put an end to the rocket attacks and then only would Israel agree to a truce. While the talks of a truce circulated amongst the conference tables Israeli airplanes continued their carpet bombing on the Gaza strip.

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.

More than twenty rockets and mortar bombs have struck the soil of Southern Israel in just two days after the end of the six month truce between Israel and Hamas. Hamas stepped up its attacks as the Israelis conducted a cabinet meeting on how to best deal with the militant groups that are currently in control of the Gaza strip. The meeting however brought to light the differences that exist within the Kadima party that is in power.

Having initiated the war against Hizbollah in Lebanon in 2006 it was ironic to find Ehud Olmert suggesting the government to passively wait and see what happens in Gaza. He said “a responsible government doesn’t rush into battle, neither does it shy away”. He also urged the government not to make overly bold statements but found foreign minister Tzipi Livini vowing to topple the Hamas regime making use of military, economic and diplomatic measures.

The foreign minister shares the mindset of the hard line Likud Party Leader Benjamin Netanyahu who has been foremost in calling for military action against Hamas. Netanyahu said the militant groups defeat was going to come sooner or later. He was reported as saying “In the long-term, we will have to topple the Hamas regime. In the short-term … there are a wide range of possibilities, from doing nothing to doing everything, meaning to conquer Gaza.”

There is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the kind of military efforts that will be required in order to stop the rocket attacks from Hamas. The government seems to be divided in its opinion and confused as to how to go about dealing with Hamas. They admitted not having a workable strategy against Hamas at the moment but are intent on coming to common terms within itself and develop an effective strategy against Hamas.