Space 2009: Russia Will Carry Out 39 Launches

Russia is planning to establish a world record, effectuating a total of 39 space launches in 2009, despite of the current global financial crisis, the Russian chief of the Space Agency said on Monday. "We are planning a record number of launches for next year. We are planning the implementation of 39 launches, with half of these being civil and commercial satellites," said Anatoly Perminov.

Russia conducted 27 launches in 2008 and 26 space launches in 2007, becoming the world leader in this field.

Perminov said that Russia is going to fulfill all of its obligations on behalf of its international partners. "In spite of the difficulties created by the crisis, we are preparing to launch four manned space missions in 2009, instead of two, and we are planning to send payloads on six vehicles for the International Space Station, instead of four."

Perminov said that there would be no changes in the Glonass satellite program in Russia. "We are going to carry out two launches with three Glonass satellites to increase to each orbital grouping of six satellites," he said. The Glonass grouping at present consists of 19 satellites, of which 16 are operational, two are in maintenance and one is going to be removed. The system requires 18 satellites for continued navigation services covering the entire territory of the Russian Federation and 24 satellites to provide services throughout the world.

A total of 9.9 billion rubles ($360 million at the current exchange rate), was allocated for GLONASS from the federal budget in 2007, and 4.7 billion rubles ($170 million) in 2006. Six new Glonass satellites were added to the net in 2008.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a directive on the 12th of September, so that an additional $2.6 billion is allocated to develop the system. Anatoly Perminov said in September that the number of satellites in the Glonass net would be increased to 30 by 2011.

Source: RIA Novosti

Gaza's worsening nightmare

by Adel Zaanoun

GAZA CITY (AFP) – The shelling is incessant, hospitals are overwhelmed, children are shell-shocked, the Gaza nights are miserably cold in the windowless homes. And residents fear their nightmare could worsen.

After days of intense bombardment from the air, artillery shells are now pounding the Gaza Strip, as militants return fire with rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli tanks.

Children are traumatized, living in fear of the next explosion that will shake their home.

"Many kids have stopped eating. They are inactive, they barely talk, they cling to their parents all the time," said Sajy Elmaghinni, who works for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Gaza.

"Children are now scared of the dark, which is a major problem because there's no electricity," says Elmaghinni, whose own home has been without power for five days.

He has no way of heating his home where all the windows were blown out by a blast, but like others in the besieged Palestinian enclave he has become used to dealing with the cold. "We just wear a lot of clothes."

What does worry him is how he'll get his nine-month pregnant wife to the hospital when she is due to deliver.

"This is a major concern. At the beginning of the bombing she experienced some trauma when a neighboring building was hit.

"Everybody evacuated our building. We had to stay. I didn't know what to do. I prayed to God my wife would not deliver in these conditions.

"It's very difficult to get an ambulance, they're all busy with the wounded. We can't walk to the clinic at night because drones pick up anything that moves."

Some of the missiles fired on Gaza are launched from unmanned aircraft that can be heard flying overhead.

Virtually everyone has a tragic story to tell in this shell-shocked coastal strip already crippled by an 18-month-old Israeli blockade.

At least 523 people have died in the onslaught unleashed by Israel on December 27 in a bid to silence the rocket fire from Gaza, an overcrowded territory of 1.5 million ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.

Of the 90 killed since the ground offensive started on Saturday night, 27 were children and another 17 were women, according to Palestinian medics.

Hospitals are completely overwhelmed.

They used to have five surgeons to operate on a severely wounded patient. Now a surgeon might have to operate on as many as 10 patients in a day, doctors said.

Amputations are increasingly frequent as doctors do not have time to try to save limbs. Many wounded people have died because they could not be treated in time, according to health authorities.

In Gaza City the nightmare is compounded by uncertainty as Israel's troops move closer. "The scariest part is not knowing when they will move into the city. When they do, there could be many civilians killed," says Elmaghinni.

Residents live in fear, and the streets of the city are deserted. In any case there's nowhere to go. Supermarkets are virtually empty. There is no cooking gas and UN food aid distribution has been suspended.

When civilians do venture out into the streets it is usually to move to slightly safer locations, from high-rise buildings that rattle when there's a blast or from homes too close to potential targets -- mosques, government offices or the homes of Hamas officials.

Analysis: Abbas tries to regain foothold in Gaza

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer

RAMALLAH, West Bank – With Hamas weakened by Israel's Gaza offensive, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to regain a foothold in the territory he lost to the Islamic militants in 2007.

Abbas is backing international efforts to end the violence, particularly an Egyptian proposal to deploy his forces on Gaza's borders, along with other monitors. Yet he's lost points at home for not displaying more sympathy for battered Gazans and for being perceived as too soft on Israel.

It's not clear whether Hamas has been weakened enough by Israel's air and ground attacks to even consider relinquishing some power to Abbas in Gaza. Before the operation, the rivals were on a collision course, with Hamas saying Abbas' four-year term ends Friday and that it will not recognize him after that.

Abbas is heading to the United Nations in New York on Monday, after meetings with the French president and top European diplomats in the West Bank, to lobby for a cease-fire deal.

As part of any truce, Hamas seeks to end the blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militants' violent takeover of the territory 18 months ago. Israel demands stronger guarantees that Hamas will halt rocket fire on towns and cities in southern Israel.

A new cease-fire would likely involve international monitors — an idea raised by President Bush over the weekend — since bilateral arrangements between Hamas and Israel have been unstable.

Israel has said it's open to proposals: "We are open to ideas if they are credible, if they contain credible guarantees," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

Egypt, the main mediator between Hamas and Israel, says it will only open its border with Gaza if Abbas' forces take up positions there, in line with a 2005 agreement.

"We believe Hamas is going to stay but we want it to stay in a way that would not harm the legitimacy (of the Abbas government) or harm us," said Gihad Auda, a member of Egypt's ruling party.

The 2005 agreement, brokered by the U.S. after Israel's withdrawal from the territory, also stipulates that Abbas' troops handle border traffic with Israel. Finally, it provides for EU monitors on the Gaza-Egypt border, to prevent weapons smuggling.

In allowing Abbas' men to run the crossings, Hamas would have to give up considerable control. However, the Islamic militants would be able to consolidate their rule over the rest of Gaza if the blockade is lifted.

Hamas has been hit badly in Israel's nine-day onslaught, particularly by the demolition of border smuggling tunnels, the territory's last lifeline and a key guarantor of Hamas rule. Without the tunnels, Hamas will not be able to replenish its weapons arsenal or assure at least a minimal supply of consumer goods.

However, Hamas could also keep firing rockets at Israel in hopes of winning better cease-fire conditions.

The international monitors would likely not have policing powers but they could serve as a deterrent nonetheless, said Robert Blecher, an analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank. But their presence "will increase the political cost to both actors" if they violate a cease-fire, he said.

Hamas' top leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, signaled some flexibility last week, saying the group is open to efforts "to end the Israeli offensive against Gaza, lift the siege and open all crossings."

Abbas aide Nimer Hamad said the Egyptian demand to return to the 2005 border arrangements is nonnegotiable. "There is no choice for Hamas but to accept the 2005 agreement," said Hamad.

Still, agreeing on the details of a new border deployment, such as what powers would be given to Abbas' forces, would be daunting. Abbas and Hamas, bitter political rivals, have been unable to reach consensus on any key issues since the internal Palestinian power struggle erupted in full force in January 2006, following Hamas' sweeping victory in parliament elections.

Abbas and his aides, meanwhile, are going out of their way to avoid the impression that they are benefiting from Israel's war in Gaza. "We are not going to get back to Gaza according to the results of this war," said Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza strongman who was sidelined by Abbas after the Hamas takeover. "We would return according to an internal understanding with all Palestinian factions."

While Israel's Gaza campaign opened new diplomatic opportunities, it cost Abbas popularity at home. In the first days of the fighting, with Arab satellite channels broadcasting horrific images of destruction and loss of life in Gaza, Abbas partly blamed Hamas, saying it gave Israel a reason to attack.

He's since hardened his tone against Israel, denouncing the offensive on Sunday as "brutal aggression."

However, he's still widely seen in the Palestinian areas as aloof and uncaring. The impression has been deepened by the crackdown of his security forces on anti-Israeli protests in the West Bank.

There were some signs that the Gaza fighting has boosted Hamas at Abbas' expense.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Abdel Ghani Marmash, a longtime supporter of Abbas' Fatah movement, said he's switching to Hamas.

"I was arrested 19 times by the Israelis" as a Fatah supporter, he said. "Today, I am honored to follow the Hamas flag. At a time like this, all Palestinians are Hamas."

Israelis relieved as army moves to halt rockets

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer

SDEROT, Israel – Israelis bombarded by Palestinian rockets have begun to emerge from homes and shelters, regaining confidence after columns of Israeli soldiers moved into Gaza to crush the militants who have rained missiles on them for eight years.

Towns near the Gaza Strip virtually shut down after Israel's conflict with Gaza militants escalated into a showdown on Dec. 27. Israel launched an air campaign against the missile launchers and against Hamas, the Islamic militant movement that rules the territory, while the militants stepped up the barrage against Israeli towns and villages.

The ground offensive that began Saturday night brought cheer to Israeli civilians, convinced their government meant to end the missile terror even at the cost of what is likely to be heavy army casualties.

However, the armored and infantry assault brought no immediate respite from rocket attacks. At least 45 missiles fell on southern Israel on Sunday, wounding five people.

"It's good that the troops went in. Finally we are doing something," said Yamit Azulai, emptying a shopping cart full of groceries into her car. It was the first time in a week she had been to the supermarket in Sderot, a town just beyond Gaza's northeast corner that has absorbed thousands of missiles since 2001.

"Until now, it was Hamas who decided when to fire missiles. It was always in their hands. Now we are taking control," she said.

Moves toward normalcy were tentative. Some shops and cafes reopened in Sderot, but about half remained shuttered. Schools and nonessential industries stayed shut within a 25-mile reach of Gaza, the maximum range in Hamas' missile arsenal. Some people like Azulai who ventured out finished their chores quickly to return home.

"I'm not letting the children outside," she said.

The offensive brought a kind of vindictive satisfaction to Sderot, which had long urged the government to strike at Hamas and take out the missile threat. With only 20,000 people, many believed the authorities were unwilling to risk a major confrontation on their behalf.

"I'm glad Ashdod and Beersheba got hit," said construction worker Zohar Shapado, referring to two large Israeli cities that were rocketed for the first time last month. "It was only then that they decided to act."

Sderot has built up formidable defenses. Every bus stop has a small concrete hut to protect against the shrapnel and pellets packed into the warhead of homemade Qassam rockets. Homes and apartment blocks are built with windowless rooms with steel doors.

People are edgy, but resigned to being targets.

"We're used to it," said Shapado, calmly abandoning the coffee he was drinking at a sidewalk cafe and moving inside to safety as yet another rocket alert resounded through town. Seconds later, the boom of the rocket crashing harmlessly in a field outside of town was the signal for customers to return to their tables and resume conversations.

Police say 10 people have been killed in Sderot since 2004, including three toddlers. That compares with more than 500 Palestinians killed in Gaza in the last week, including about 100 civilians.

But the damage often is psychological. Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, where most casualties from southern Israel are brought, has treated 164 civilian patients since the Israeli air war began. All but 10 were "stress related," Shlomi Cabish, the hospital's deputy director, told The Associated Press.

Not everyone is happy with the decision to send infantry troops into the narrow warrens of Gaza, where Palestinian resistance was fierce and dozens of soldiers were wounded and at least one was killed in the first 24 hours.

Sitting under a date palm in Beersheba's Old City, Benny Fryand argued with his friend Amos Shem Tov over the advisability of a ground war.

"You want to send in the army like cowboys," said Fryand, 59, arguing that the air war had been conducted with devastating effect without a single military casualty. Fryand, who splits his time between Israel and Brooklyn, New York, expected Hamas to take revenge by firing even more rockets.

Shem Tov, 61, voicing what appeared from several interviews to be the majority view, said the war against Hamas cannot be won from the air.

"What would Stalin say? You can't have war without casualties," said the veteran immigrant from the Caucasus region of Russia. "After that comes the victory."

Young pro-India leader sworn in as Kashmir chief

JAMMU, India (AFP) – A young pro-India Muslim was Monday sworn in as the new chief minister of revolt-hit Kashmir after elections that attracted a higher turnout than many politicians and voters expected.

Omar Abdullah, the 38-year-old leader of the National Conference, took the oath of office at a tightly guarded auditorium in Jammu, the state's winter capital.

Despite a boycott call by separatists and Islamic rebels, more than 60 percent of voters took part in the polls, which came after a period of direct federal rule.

Kashmir is divided into Indian- and Pakistani-controlled zones and has been the trigger for two wars between the South Asian rivals since their independence from Britain in 1947.

Abdullah was backed by India's ruling Congress party for the top job, after polls in the troubled Muslim-majority region produced no single party strong enough to form the government on its own.

"I swear to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India," said Abdullah, wearing a long black coat and white shalwar at the ceremony, which was attended by Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi.

English-born Abdullah inherited the party leadership in 2002 from his father, Farooq Abdullah, but is seen as more moderate.

"Omar is more acceptable. He is young and understands the Kashmir dispute well. He has promised to facilitate talks between separatists and New Delhi," said Yasmeen Ali, a lecturer. "I am hopeful he will deliver."

The National Conference won 28 of the state assembly's 87 seats, while the Congress Party bagged 17.

Israel pounds Gaza, vows to continue campaign

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli forces consolidated their hold on parts of Gaza's north Monday, pounding the territory from the air, land and sea and killing at least seven children and six other civilians in a bruising campaign against Hamas militants.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the offensive would continue until Israel achieved "peace and tranquility" for residents of southern Israel who continued to be bombarded by Palestinian rocket and mortar fire.

Militants, defying the attacks, fired 20 rockets at Israel by midday Monday and Gaza's Hamas strongman urged Palestinians to "crush" the invading Israeli forces and target Israeli civilians.

A stream of diplomats and world leaders hoping to end the violence headed for the region to meet with Israeli leaders as world outrage over ballooning Palestinian casualties mounted. Gaza health officials reported 524 dead and nearly 2,000 wounded since Israel embarked upon its military campaign against Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers on Dec. 27. At least 200 civilians were among the dead.

Israeli forces seized sparsely populated areas in northern Gaza and by Monday morning were dug in on the edges of Gaza City. Further movement into the heart of the built-up areas would mean deadly urban warfare, with house-to-house fighting, sniper fire and booby traps in crowded streets and alleyways familiar to Hamas' 20,000 fighters.

Thirteen civilians died in the various attacks across Gaza on Monday morning, said Gaza health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.

Four young siblings were killed in a missile strike on a house east of Gaza City. Three other children died in a naval shelling of a Gaza City beach camp and three adult civilians died when a missile struck near a house of mourning in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, he said. Three other adult civilians died in attacks elsewhere.

Israeli troops took over three six-floor buildings on the outskirts of Gaza City, taking up rooftop positions after locking residents in rooms and taking away their cell phones, a neighbor said, quoting a relative in one of the buildings before his phone was taken away.

"The army is there, firing in all directions," said Mohammed Salmai, a 29-year-old truck driver. "All we can do is take clothes to each other to keep ourselves warm and pray to God that if we die, someone will find our bodies under the rubble."

Civilian casualties have spiked since Israel launched a ground offensive Saturday, following a week of punishing air strikes. Of about 80 Palestinians killed during the ground operation, at least 70 were civilians, Hassanain said.

Black smoke from tank shells and windswept dust billowed in the air over Gaza City, while white smoke from mortar shells rose in plumes above a main road leading to northern Gaza that the Israeli military seized on Sunday, cutting off Gaza's north from its south. Explosions could be heard in Gaza City as aircraft attacked buildings.

The streets of Gaza City, home to 400,000 people, were almost empty. Two children crossing a street near a Hamas security compound didn't look right and left for cars but gazed up at the sky, apparently looking for attack aircraft. The only vehicles on the road were fire engines, ambulances and press cars.

Unmanned Israeli planes and Apache helicopters circled overhead.

"Hamas has sustained a very harsh blow," Barak told parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee. "But we still haven't reached our objectives, so the offensive continues."

Israel has three main demands: an end to Palestinian attacks, international supervision of any truce and a halt to Hamas rearming.

"If we withdraw today, without reaching some kind of comprehensive agreement, we haven't done anything," Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio. "The military has to carry on with its work."

Hamas demands a cessation of Israeli attacks and the opening of vital Gaza-Israel cargo crossings, Gaza's main lifeline.

Hamas leaders went into hiding before the Israeli military strike began and only on rare occasions have addressed the Gaza residents in broadcasts from their hideouts. On Monday, the mastermind of Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, exhorted Palestinians to "crush" Israeli forces and to target Israeli civilians.

"The Zionists have legitimized the killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people," Zahar said in a grainy video broadcast on Hamas TV.

"Crush your enemy," he urged.

Hamas security said Israeli aircraft struck two mosques in central and northern Gaza, while ground troops battled with militants armed with mortar shells, grenades and antitank missiles in the area between Gaza City, Gaza's largest urban area, and Jebaliya to the north.

The ground clashes took place in open areas militants use to launch rockets and mortars at nearby Israeli communities, but did not advance into urban areas where casualties are liable to swell.

The Israeli military said aircraft carried out 30 sorties overnight, striking a mosque in Jebaliya that contained a large store of weapons, and an underground arms bunker in the Gaza City area that touched off secondary explosions and collapsed underground smuggling tunnels.

Aircraft also hit weapons smugging tunnels in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border and went after the houses of Hamas members where weapons were stored, the military said. A rocket launcher and suspected anti-aircraft missile launcher were also targeted, it said.

The violence has deepened the suffering in impoverished Gaza, home to 1.4 million people. The military said Monday that 80 truckloads of humanitarian aid and critical fuel supplies would be let in.

Militants, defying the attacks, fired more than a dozen rockets at Israel early Monday, police said. No injuries were reported, but the rockets continued to fire deep inside Israel, some 20 miles from the Gaza border. One reason Israel launched the Gaza campaign was because militants have acquired weapons able to reach closer to Israel's Tel Aviv heartland.

Israel's ground operation is the second phase in an offensive that began as a weeklong aerial onslaught aimed at halting Hamas rocket fire that now threatens major cities and one-eighth of Israel's population of 7 million people.

The spiraling civilian casualties have fueled an intensifying international outcry.

Five Israelis have been killed since the offensive began. One soldier has been killed in the ground operation and about 40 were wounded, some of them in heavy exchanges of fire near the militant stronghold of Jebaliya, a town on Gaza City's northern outskirts. Heavy Israeli casualties could undermine what has so far been overwhelming public support for the operation.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who unsuccessfully proposed a two-day truce before the land invasion began, was due to meet with Israei Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Paelstinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to Hamas in June 2007.

While blaming Hamas for causing Palestinian suffering with rocket fire that led to the Israeli offensive, Sarkozy has condemned Israel's use of ground troops, reflecting general world opinion. Sarkozy and other diplomats making their way to the region are expected to press hard for a cease-fire.

A European Union delegation including foreign policy chief Javier Solana was due to meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

The Czech Republic, which took over the 27-nation EU's presidency on Thursday, urged Israel to allow humanitarian relief aid into Gaza. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on the phone Sunday with Olmert and advocated a quick cease-fire in Gaza, her government said in a statement. Merkel also called for an end to the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip.

Turkey and Egypt, which have both been involved intimately in Mideast peacemaking, have denounced the ground offensive.

Israeli army moves on Gaza City as war toll passes 510

GAZA CITY, (AFP) - - Tens of thousands of Israeli troops battled Hamas fighters in Gaza early on Monday amid tank, artillery and air strikes, as the death toll from the offensive to end rocket attacks passed 510.

Israeli forces moved into the fringes of Gaza City as families fled or hid on the second night of combat.

The Israeli government fought off intense international pressure over its biggest military operation since its 2006 war in Lebanon, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy due in the region, as well as Russian and EU delegations.

At least 70 Palestinians have been killed since the ground offensive began on Saturday night, Gaza medics said.

Israel said one soldier was killed by a mortar shell and another 19 were wounded, bringing the total to 49 since the beginning of the incursion.

Columns of troops and tanks surrounded Gaza City and fighting was reported in outer districts.

Witnesses said tanks had cut off Gaza City and the far north from the rest of the strip, which would prevent the entry of arms, supplies and fighters from the south.

An AFP photographer said warplanes were also bombing targets in the southern border town of Rafah, where hundreds of tunnels are used to smuggle in supplies from Egypt.

The army declined to confirm or deny the reports.

Fierce clashes were also reported around the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanun and Jabaliya.

Moawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza medical emergency services, told AFP the number of Palestinians killed since the Israeli operation was launched on December 27 was now 512, including 87 children.

Five members of the same family died when a tank shell hit their car near Gaza City, emergency services said.

Three ambulance workers were killed when they were hit by a missile as they helped wounded victims of the conflict, medics said.

Aid groups said the offensive had aggravated a humanitarian crisis for the population, who have no electricity, no water and now face dire food shortages. Hospitals were only running on backup generators.

International efforts to halt the conflict sought new impetus after the UN Security Council failed to agree a statement on the conflict, with the United States giving strong backing to Israel.

Sarkozy was scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah on Monday, after first meeting his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, in Cairo.

France hopes Egypt can rekindle its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas.

In telephone talks with Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and a host of other foreign leaders, Olmert refused to call off the offensive, his office said.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, is heading a delegation to the Middle East, while Medvedev's Middle East envoy, Alexander Saltanov, was also on the way.

The European Union and Russia are both part of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, along with the United Nations and the United States.

Israel unleashed "Operation Cast Lead" on December 27 with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks on Israel that resumed after a six-month truce ended on December 19.

Rocket fire over the past week has killed four people in Israel. Thirty-two rockets and mortar rounds were fired across the border on Sunday and hit Sderot, Ashdod and other towns, lightly injuring three people.

Israel believes Hamas may be seeking "a respectable" way out of the conflict having underestimated the scope of the military offensive, Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog said.

He told CNN television Hamas was under "huge pressure" from the military operation.

"The intelligence reports that we've received today in the Israeli cabinet are that the Hamas is looking for a respectable way of finding a way to get out of this situation," he said.

Israeli army spokesman Avi Benayahu told public television "Hamas has come to the conclusion that it has made an enormous strategic error by refusing to extend a ceasefire accord."

Al-Jazeera television said a Hamas delegation would go to Cairo on Monday at Egypt's invitation, but Hamas officials could not be reached for confirmation.

The Israeli offensive has sparked spiraling anger in the Muslim world and protests across the globe .

Israeli troops shot and killed a protester during a demonstration in the West Bank. Tens of thousands of Turks staged an anti-Israeli rally in Istanbul.

Protesters threw rocks and eggs at police outside the Israeli embassy in Oslo and police responded with tear gas.

The UN Security Council failed to agree a statement calling for a ceasefire in closed-door consultations late on Saturday.

That drew expressions of regret from UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Sunday, who said he would be working with key players to facilitate a consensus to bring about an end to the violence.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum condemned the Security Council action as "a farce" dominated by the United States, which has strongly supported Israel.

Egypt summoned the ambassadors of the UN Security Council's five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- to protest at the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned "in the strongest terms" Israel's ground attack which his office called a "terrifying aggression."