Demonstrators wave a Palestinian flag during a protest against the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza in the Puerta del Sol in central Madrid January 4, 2009. Israeli troops and tanks split the Gaza Strip and ringed its main city on Sunday in an offensive against Hamas that has killed more than 500 Palestinians, many of them civilians. Banners read "Long live the Palestine resistance, Break with the Zionist State, Red Current" and "Stop the Palestinian Genocide". REUTERS/Paul Hanna (SPAIN)From Yahoo News/AFP:
PARIS (AFP) – Israel's tank and troop assault on the Gaza Strip provoked cries of alarm worldwide Sunday, but Israel won heavyweight US backing and moves for an immediate ceasefire foundered at the United Nations.
A Russian presidential envoy and an EU ministerial mission headed to the Middle East to try to agree a ceasefire while Israel battled Hamas fighters in the fields and roads of Gaza and the Palestinian death toll passed 500.
And in Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced she was calling off a trip to China scheduled for later this week to deal with the crisis.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who starts a four-nation tour of the Middle East on Monday, said Hamas bore "a heavy responsibility" for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
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