Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not bow to "outside influence" as its aircraft carried out more bombing and the army's tanks shelled several locations despite an announced three-hour "humanitarian" lull.
A handout picture from the public information office of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) released to the media shows rockets found in south Lebanon January 9, 2009. U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese army troops found an old cache of rockets near the border with Israel on Friday, a day after at least three rockets were fired into northern Israel.
Hamas, meanwhile, also rejected the United Nations resolution, which called for an "immediate, durable" ceasefire on the grounds that it only served Israel's interests.
Two weeks on from the start of Operation Cast Lead, more than 780 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, according to medics in Gaza.
Pressure on the two sides increased with a late-night UN Security Council resolution that demanded an "immediate, durable" ceasefire leading to the "full withdrawal" of Israeli forces from Gaza.Fourteen of the 15 council members voted in favour. The United States, Israel's main ally, abstained but refrained from vetoing the resolution agreed after lengthy negotiations between Arab and Western foreign ministers.
The moderate Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, whose power is limited to the West Bank, called the UN move an "important step," but stressed that applying it was key.
'Impractical' The response from Olmert, however, was dismissive, calling it "impractical" in the face of continued rocket attacks by Hamas.
Israel launched its war against the Islamists on December 27 aiming to end rocket attacks in southern Israel and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza from Egypt.
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