Where now for diplomacy?
Updated on 09 January 2009
Both Hamas and Israel have ignored the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire as fighting intensifies in the Gaza strip.
Despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and durable ceasefire, the violence continued today with Israel bombarding Gaza and Hamas firing rockets across the border.
Both sides refused to accept the resolution - the Israeli Prime Minister calling it "unworkable" because of the rocket fire. The scale of the crisis in Gaza is shown by new UN figures revealing that 257 Palestinian children have been killed in the two week conflict.
The UN has also called for an investigation into what it called "one of the gravest incidents" since the beginning of the offensive - the deaths of 30 Palestinians in a house Israel had moved them into.
The Israeli death toll stands at 13, three of whom were civilians killed by militant rocket fire into Israel. Overall the Palestinian death toll has reached at least 784, according to medical officials in Gaza.
UN officials now say more than a third, or 257, are children. They also estimate 1080 children have been wounded.
Among the most recent victims were a Palestinian family of seven who were killed after tanks shelled their house in Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Interview: John Holmes
Jon Snow interviews John Holmes, the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs in New York.
