US, UN, France call on Israel to do more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza

Calls come after four children were killed on a beach in the Gaza Strip earlier in the week and as Israel begins a ground offensive in Gaza.

By REUTERS
Netnayahu and Ban Ki-moon 370 (photo credit: Koby Gideon/GPO)
Netnayahu and Ban Ki-moon 370
(photo credit: Koby Gideon/GPO)
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Israel to do more to stop Palestinian civilian deaths as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to begin a ground offensive in Gaza.
"I regret that despite my repeated urgings, and those of many regional and world leaders together, an already dangerous conflict has now escalated even further," Ban said. "I urge Israel to do far more to stop civilian casualties."
France's foreign minister also said on Thursday he was extremely worried by an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza and called on Israel to show utmost restraint.
Laurent Fabius, who will meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Cairo on Friday as part of a three-day trip to secure a "lasting ceasefire", said it was vital to protect civilians and avoid new victims.
"France is extremely concerned by the Israeli decision to launch a ground offensive in Gaza. It calls on Israel to show the utmost restraint," Fabius said in a statement.
The United States on Thursday called on Israel to do more to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties in its conflict with Hamas militants after four children were killed on a beach in the Gaza Strip.
Even while stepping up US pressure for Israeli restraint, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reasserted Washington's condemnation of Hamas's "indiscriminate rocket attacks" targeting Israeli civilians and affirmed US support for Israel's right to defend itself.
"We continue to urge all parties to do all they can to protect civilians," she told reporters at the State Department's daily briefing. "We have been heart-broken by the high civilian death toll in Gaza."
US Secretary of State John Kerry underscored in a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday that "there's more that can be done" by Israel to avoid civilian casualties and that it must redouble its efforts, Psaki said.
An Israeli gunboat off Gaza's Mediterranean coast shelled a Gaza beach on Wednesday, killing four boys - two aged 10 and the others 9 and 11 - from one family and critically wounding another youngster, according to witnesses and a Gaza Health Ministry official.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas operatives but that the reported civilian casualties were unintended and tragic and it was investigating. Israel has long accused militants of storing weapons in civilian facilities and using Gaza residents as human shields by launching rockets from residential areas.
"The tragic event makes clear that Israel must take every possible step to meet its standards for protecting civilians from being killed," Psaki said.
Psaki also said: "I don't think we've made any secret about our concern, strong concern about the actions of Hamas, the indiscriminate rocket attacks, the targeting of civilians - and that concern remains."
She spoke just hours before an official statement from Netanyahu's office instructed the military to begin a ground operation "to hit the terror tunnels from Gaza into Israel."