Europeans in push for new UN resolution on Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: Britain, France and Germany have put forward key points of a new UN Security Council resolution on Gaza in a fresh bid to end six weeks of violence, diplomats said Thursday. The European initiative came as fighting flared in the six-week war, with Israeli airstrikes killing three top Hamas commanders and an Egyptian-led effort to broker peace talks teetering on the verge of collapse. The two-page document obtained by AFP calls for an immediate and sustainable cease-fire that would put an end to the firing of rockets and military operations in the Gaza Strip. It calls for a lifting of the Israeli blockade and a monitoring mechanism to report on cease-fire violations and verify the flow of goods into the Gaza Strip. Diplomats said the measure was aimed at advancing efforts to reach agreement within the 15-member Security Council on a resolution after Jordan’s draft met with resistance, notably from the United States. The points described in the “elements” document lay out the parameters for a cease-fire deal that would address Israel’s security concerns and Palestinian demands. It instructs UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to immediately come up with proposals to “implement the relevant provisions of this resolution” in a move that could jump start the peace negotiations. UN diplomats said they hoped the initiative would shore up the Egyptian-led peace track and lead to a sustainable cease-fire to avoid a relapse into war in a few years. “We are getting positive messages from the region that this could be helpful,” a diplomatic source told AFP. More than 2,083 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict that began on July 8, most of them civilians, according to UN officials. AFP