Annan calls on Israel to halt its attack against Gaza

The UN secretary general Kofi Annan called on Israel to end its military operation in Gaza. An operation which resulted in killing scores of Palestinians most of them are civilians including children since last Tuesday.

In a statement, the spokesman for the UN, Fred Echhard, said that Annan also called on the Palestinian Authority to prevent launching missiles against Israeli targets.

This, however, coincided with the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon given orders for his forces to expand the scale of the attack in Gaza, stressing that it will continue until the Palestinian groups stop launching missiles.

Sharon also told the Israeli army radio following the weekly meeting of his government that the army will also expand the buffer zone in northern Gaza in order to alienate the Israeli towns from the domain of the missile attacks and to ensure that "withdrawal will not be made under fire in 2005" as he alleged.

Some 200 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles controlled nine square kilometers from north Gaza and greatly incurred in Jabalia camp for installing the buffer zone similar to what had happened in south Lebanon 18 years ago.