UN aid agency halts Gaza operation

The United Nations agency that provides food to half of Gaza's 1.5m population suspended all its activities in the embattled territory yesterday, saying the Israeli offensive made it too risky to continue its work.

The move by the UN Relief and Works Agency was prompted by a series of Israeli attacks on its workers and installations, and came amid rising concern that the 13-day assault on Gaza could ignite a broader regional conflict.

Palestinian groups in Lebanon apparently fired at least four rockets into northern Israel yesterday, in an attack that raised fears of a second front opening up in Israel's confrontation with Hamas. Israel responded to the attack with artillery fire, but there was no further escalation following the initial exchange.

The Lebanese government moved quickly to quash speculation that Hizbollah, the armed Shia movement that fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and is an ally of Hamas, was behind the attacks. Mohammed Fneish, a Hizbollah minister in the Lebanese cabinet, denied that the group had anything to do with the rockets.

As the Israeli government vowed to continue the offensive, the suspension of UN aid to some 750,000 Gazans dealt a fresh blow to the civilian population. The move came after a Palestinian driver of a UN-contracted truck was killed by Israeli tank fire as he drove towards an Israeli border crossing to pick up humanitarian aid.

In a second incident yesterday, a three-vehicle UN convoy, which included two international staff members, came under "direct fire" from Israeli forces as it drove into Gaza to collect the body of a colleague killed earlier in the week, UNRWA said.

Israel also faced strong criticism from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which said aid workers had found four starving children sitting next to their dead mothers and other bodies in a destroyed house in Gaza City. In unusually strong language, the ICRC accused Israel of delaying ambulances from reaching the bombed area. An Israel army post was just 80 metres from the house.

"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, ICRC chief for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestinian Red Crescent to assist the wounded."

As European leaders renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli and Egyptian officials met in Cairo to discuss details of a Franco-Egyptian initiative to end the conflict and prevent Hamas from rearming.

It remains unclear, however, how precisely the Gaza-Egypt border can be sufficiently reinforced to stop arms smuggling, not least because Egypt is ruling out the stationing of an international force on its territory. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, has said the involvement of foreign troops "was totally rejected and would not happen, neither today nor in a thousand years".

As fighting continued in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 715, including many civilians. Eight Israeli soldiers and three civilians have also been killed.

With additional reporting by Heba Saleh in Cairo and Daniel Dombey in Washington

Philip Stephens, Page 9 www.ft.com/arabisrael www.ft.com/worldvideo