The UN Security Council should shoulder its responsibilities and call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as well as consider sending international observers to monitor it, the Palestinian UN observer said Thursday.

Riyad Mansour said it is time for the UN's most powerful body, which has been paralyzed on Palestinian-Israeli issues, to help restore peace and stop escalating attacks and arrests by Israel.

Our desire is to see that the council use it power .... to call for an
im

	Advertisement

immediate cease-fire in Gaza, to spread to the West Bank, and maybe to
entertain the idea of observers because we are sick and tired of this cycle of who is breaking the cease-fire, he said. If you have observers ... then we will know for sure who is really breaking the cease-fire, he added.

The Palestinian envoy spoke to reporters before Undersecretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe told the Security Council that the longer the violence that erupted in Gaza and extended to southern Israel continues the greater the risk of escalation, and the greater the threat to both the survival of the (Palestinian) national unity government and to the prospects for any fruitful Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.

Mansour said he told the Security Council president, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, on Thursday that the key stumbling block to action is political will.

Khalilzad told reporters he has agreed to meet the delegation but has not received a formal request yet on a cease-fire and observers. If a request is received, he said, we will study it, we will consult with others.

Earlier Thursday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said he is in touch with the Palestinian factions on bringing an end to their "absurd" Qassam rocket attacks on Israel, and trying to secure a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip that could be extended to the West Bank.

Abbas also criticized the Israel Defense Forces reprisal raids. Abbas arrived in Gaza Monday to try to restore a truce with Israel. He met Thursday with the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and informed him of his efforts.

Abbas said he told the Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and the factions to stop the rockets, "which I am used to calling the absurd rockets" he said.

Abbas said: "We don't need them. They must stop so we can reach a mutual truce with Israel in Gaza as well as in West Bank." He also said the IDF airstrikes do not help in stopping the rocket attacks.

Hamas threatened new attacks Thursday after Israel Defense Forces troops arrested 33 senior officials in the organization - including legislators, mayors and one cabinet minister.

"Our strikes against the enemy will continue, we have freed the hand of all our cells to strike the enemy everywhere in Palestine," Hamas' armed wing said in a statement.

The raid was the latest strike against the Islamic militant group, in the wake of Hamas rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli border towns.

According to Israel Radio, the security cabinet approved the arrests five days ago, and instructed the Shin Bet security service and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to collect and examine evidence against the officials.

The most prominent Hamas politician to be arrested was Education Minister Nasser Shaer. His wife, Huda, said soldiers knocked on the door of their home in the West Bank city of Nablus and took him away. Troops also seized Shaer's computer, she said.

It was the second time Shaer was arrested in a roundup of Hamas members in the past year.

Soldiers also arrested former cabinet minister Abdel Rahman Zeidan, legislators Hamed Bitawi and Daoud Abu Ser, the mayors of the towns of Nablus, Qalqiliya and Beita - Adli Yaish, Wajih Qawas and Arab Shurafa - as well as the head of the main Islamic charity in Nablus, Fayad al-Arba.

Troops also searched for Ahmed Haj Ali, a Hamas legislator in Nablus, but didn't find him at home, neighbors said.

Speaking to Army Radio, Defense Minister Amir Peretz defended action. "Arrests are better than shooting," he told Israeli Army Radio. "The arrest of these Hamas leaders sends a message to the armed organizations that we demand that this firing [of rockets] stop."

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' office condemned the arrests, saying they would only serve to heighten tensions in the area, Israel Radio reported.

Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the arrests displayed "a scale of escalation and Israeli arrogance" and called for those arrested to be released.

"Through this ... aggression the Israeli government is once again pushing the region into a cycle of violence and it bears the full responsibility for the consequences resulting from such irresponsible actions," Hamad said.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the arrests rendered any efforts to restore the cease-fire along the Gaza Strip "worthless."

David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister's Office, added: "Israel is making it crystal clear that it is adamant about stopping the Hamas terror directed against us both in the Gaza Strip via the continuous Qassam rocket attacks and in the West Bank where the terror cells continue to flourish."

The IDF said in a statement: "The Hamas terror organization is currently involved in enhancing the terror infrastructure in the (West Bank) region, based on the model used in the Gaza Strip. The organization exploits governmental institutions to encourage and support terrorist activity."

Last summer, Israel arrested scores of senior Hamas members following the capture of an IDF soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas-allied militants, who has not yet been released.