UN Security Council resolution calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

United Nations, Jan 89 (ANI): The UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza and durable truce between Israel and Hamas after three days of intense negotiations.

The resolution passed on Thursday night by a 14-0 vote, with the United States abstaining, FOX News reported.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US agrees with the principles of the cease-fire resolution but wants to see the outcome of an Egyptian effort to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table.

The cease-fire resolution spearheaded by Egypt and France must be "not just applauded, but supported," Rice said.

Despite the breakthrough in the United Nations, the two-week-old war in the Gaza Strip raged on, and early Friday, an Israeli airstrike flattened a five-story building in northern Gaza, one of more than 30 targets struck before dawn by Israeli warplanes.

Hamas security officials said the strike killed at least seven people, including an infant.

Israel launched its offensive on December 27 in response to cross-border rocket attacks by the Islamic group Hamas, which the United States and Israel consider a terrorist organization and whose charter calls for the descrution of the state of Israel.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, and Arab nations that have close ties to Hamas negotiated the text of the UN resolution that was passed on Thursday, but it will be up to Israel and Hamas to decide to stop their military activities.

The conflict has left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza increasingly desperate for food, water, fuel and medical assistance, and the situation was expected to worsen as humanitarian efforts fall victim to the fighting. (ANI)