Dakar: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today condemned Israel's attacks on Palestinian civilians in a speech to a summit of Muslim leaders here. Ban said Israel had employed "inappropriate and disproportionate use of force" in its renewed attacks on the Palestinian territories and called for an immediate ceasefire by both sides.

Highlighting the deaths of women and children in the Israeli attacks he said, "I condemn these acts and call on Israel to cease them" in his speech to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit. Israeli planes today hit targets in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli armed forces announced, effectively ending a five day lull in the violence.

The attack came after a dozen rockets were fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. There had been a sharp escalation in the violence since the end of February in which more than 130 Palestinians were killed, including dozens of militants, and five Israelis, including four soldiers.

At least 351 people, most of them militants on the Hamas run Gaza strip, have been killed since Israel and the Palestinians formally relaunched peace talks at a US conference in late November, according to an AFP count. The UN chief said "the situation in the Middle East remains precarious".

Source : PTI