U.N. warns of Gaza crisis

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ARON HELLER and IBRAHIM BARZAK Associated Press Writers
EREZ CROSSING, Israel — Israel allowed several hundred Palestinians with foreign passports to flee Gaza on Friday, even as its warplanes bombed a mosque it said was used to store weapons and destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives.

The evacuees told of crippling shortages of water, electricity and medicine, echoing a U.N. warning of a humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip in the seven-day-old Israeli campaign. The U.N. estimates at least a quarter of the 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Hamas militants were civilians.
Jawaher Hajji, a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who was allowed to cross into Israel, said her uncle was one of them — killed while trying to pick up some medicine for her cancer-stricken father. She said her father later died of his illness.
“They are supposed to destroy just the Hamas, but people in their homes are dying too,” Hajji, who has relatives in Virginia, said at the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Hamas’ leaders of holding the people of Gaza hostage and said an end to violence would only be possible once Hamas stopped firing rockets into Israel. She said the U.S. continues to seek a “durable and sustainable” cease-fire.
“The Hamas has used Gaza as a launching pad for rockets against Israeli cities, and has contributed deeply to a bad daily life for the Palestinians in Gaza and to a humanitarian situation we’ve all been trying to address,” she said. “We are working toward a cease-fire that would not allow a re-establishment of the status quo.”
International calls for a cease-fire have been growing, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected in the region next week. Rice said she had no plans to come to the region.
Israel has targeted Hamas leaders in the past but halted the practice during a six-month truce that expired last month. Most of Hamas’ leaders went into hiding when the Israeli offensive started Dec. 27.
Israeli troops in bases in southern Israel are awaiting orders to invade Gaza. But Israel also appears to be open to the diplomatic efforts by Arab and European leaders, saying it would consider stopping its aerial assaults if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce with Hamas.
Israel began its campaign to try to halt weeks of intensifying Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. The offensive has dealt a heavy blow to Hamas but has not stopped the rockets, which continue to strike deeper and deeper into Israel. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have been killed in the rocket attacks.