U.S. Vetoes Resolution on Israel

The United States on Tuesday vetoed a Security Council resolution calling on Israel to end its incursion in northern Gaza, saying it was “lopsided and imbalanced” and not useful in stopping violence in the Middle East.

Eleven countries voted in favor of the resolution, which also demanded the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Britain, Germany and Romania abstained, saying the resolution did not call on the Palestinians to halt their attacks.

Israel launched the military offensive -- its biggest in Gaza during four years of conflict -- after a volley of homemade rockets fired by militants with the Hamas group killed two children, ages 2 and 4, on Sept. 29 in the town of Sderot. More than 80 Palestinians have died in the incursion.

“Ultimately, a resolution like this emboldens terrorists, encourages counterattacks and contributes to the ultimate terrorist goal of derailing the peace process,” said U.S. Ambassador John C. Danforth, explaining the U.S. veto. “The Security Council should reverse the incessant stream of one anti-Israel resolution after the other and apply pressure evenhandedly on both sides to return to the road to peace.”

Tuesday’s action was the Bush administration’s seventh veto involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The U.S. policy has been to keep the issue out of the Security Council, unless both sides are condemned for engaging in violence.

But other members, such as France and Algeria, said that the council’s paralysis on the issue fed the conflict.

“It confirms that when it comes to Israel, the Security Council is unable to take action,” Algerian Ambassador Abdallah Baali said. “It is strengthening the impression that it is effective only when it comes to action against Arab countries.

“It is causing more frustration, disappointment and despair among the Palestinians and all those who consider the Security Council as the custodian of international law and the protector of the weak.”

In the northern Gaza Strip, fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants ebbed Tuesday amid news reports of efforts to negotiate an end to the clashes. But Palestinian officials denied that any cease-fire talks were underway.

Israeli forces said they were seeking to create a buffer against Palestinian homemade rockets by taking control of a swath around the Jabaliya refugee camp and two neighboring villages. There have been more than 200 rocket attacks this year.

The fighting has taken place in and around the refugee camp, an impoverished community of more than 100,000 that has been a stronghold for militant groups.

Israeli officials have described the incursion, involving more than 2,000 soldiers and dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, as open-ended.

Palestinian hospital officials and an Israeli human rights group said more than a third of the Palestinians killed in the fighting were civilians.

Israeli military leaders acknowledged civilian casualties but accused militants of firing from civilian areas.

In other developments, the Israeli army said it was reexamining a videotape that it had said showed a Kassam rocket being loaded into a United Nations ambulance.

The government had said the black-and-white video -- filmed from overhead -- was evidence that Palestinian militants were using U.N. ambulances in their fighting.

U.N. officials denied the allegation, saying the videotape appeared to show an attendant loading a stretcher into the ambulance.

The Israeli military appeared Tuesday to back down from the accusation, saying that it was “reviewing the analysis of the footage.”

Israeli soldiers fatally shot a 13-year-old girl near the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt -- an area of frequent confrontations with militants. Israel says weapons are routinely smuggled into the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels.

An Israeli military spokesman said troops opened fire after a “suspicious figure” with a knapsack entered a restricted zone near a military outpost, ignoring soldiers’ orders to stop. The girl set down the satchel and began to run, the spokesman said.

The troops, fearing the bag might contain a bomb, opened fire, he said. Army officials later determined that the bag contained books and papers.

Palestinian officials said the girl, identified as Iman Hamss, apparently strayed while on her way to school. Medical officials said she had been shot 20 times.

Late Tuesday, two militants of Islamic Jihad in Gaza City died when an Israeli aircraft fired missiles at the car in which they were traveling, Israeli media reported. Two other Palestinians were killed in a separate strike in Jabaliya.

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Ellingwood reported from Jerusalem and Farley from the United Nations. Special correspondent Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza City contributed to this report.