Hamas: UN Gaza truce resolution 'does not meet our demands'

Hamas on Friday rebuffed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as Israel's offensive against the Islamist organization enters its third week.

An exiled Hamas leader said on Friday the United States appeared to want to give Israel more time to persist with the Gaza offensive.

On Thursday the UN Security Council voted on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but the United States unexpectedly abstained in the vote, saying talks on a truce were still under way through Egyptian mediation.

"By not voting for the resolution and by not vetoing it, the United States is sending a clear signal that it supports the resolution but after a while," deputy political leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Hezbollah's Al Manar television from Damascus.

"Therefore they want... to give the enemy more time. But I assure you that they will not achieve any of their goals and they will withdraw in disappointment and they will be defeated."

Israel on Friday rejected the UN resolution calling for a Gaza cease-fire as "unworkable" and, noting fresh Palestinian rocket fire, said the army would go on defending Israelis.

Abu Marzouk echoed other Hamas officials' statements that it was "not concerned with the resolution" and had not been consulted on the draft, which also calls for measures to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza and for its border to be opened.

"This resolution was discussed in the hallways of the United Nations. The movement (Hamas) was not consulted on this resolution, our vision and the interests of our people were not taken into consideration," Abu Marzouk said.

"Therefore this resolution does not concern us unless someone comes to enforce it on the ground. When it is enforced on the ground, whatever party which tries to enforce it will have to deal with...(Hamas)."

Two weeks into the Israeli offensive on Gaza, Hamas says nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed, many of them women and children.

Ten soldiers have been killed in the land, sea and air campaign by Israel to halt the firing of Hamas rockets from Gaza into Israel. The rockets have killed three Israeli civilians since the offensive began.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas envoy to Lebanon, told the al-Arabiya satellite channel that the group "is not interested in it because it does not meet the demands of the movement."

Resolution 1860 passed with a majority of 14 votes. The United States abstained from voting.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the UN failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people. "This resolution doesn't mean that the war is over," he told the al-Jazeera satellite television network. "We call on the Palestinian fighters to mobilize and be ready to face the offensive, and we urge the Arab masses to carry on with their angry protests."

Following the resolution, Egypt was expected to take the lead in persuading Israel and Hamas to accept it. Israeli representatives returned home from talks in Cairo Thursday, and Hamas was due to send political leaders to the Egyptian capital on Saturday.

Israel's government says any cease-fire must guarantee an end to rocket fire and arms smuggling into Gaza. During a six-month cease-fire that ended with the current operation, Hamas is thought to have used tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to smuggle in the medium-range rockets it is now using to hit deeper than ever inside Israel.

Hamas has said it won't accept any agreement that does not include the full opening Gaza's blockaded border crossings. Israel is unlikely to agree to that demand, as it would allow Hamas to strengthen its hold on the territory which it violently seized in June 2007.

Palestinian FM warns of 'disrespect' in GazaMeanwhile, the Palestinian foreign minister said Friday that Israel and Hamas were showing "total disrespect" to the UN Security Council by ignoring its call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

Riad Malki told The Associated Press in an interview Friday afternoon that the UN's most powerful body must now enforce its resolution.

He said "there is no time to waste, with Palestinians dying by the hour, while Israel completes its mission in the Gaza Strip."

"If nothing changes within 48 hours," he said, "Arab foreign ministers who help draft the resolution plan a reaction." He did not elaborate.