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An old man sits beside the remains of the house of Abu Obieda al-Jarah, a senior Hamas leader and deputy police chief in the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City, Jan. 9, 2009. [Xinhua Photo]
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Also on Friday, hours after the UNSC passed the ceasefire resolution, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that the country will continue to act only in its own interest.
"Israel has acted, is acting, and will continue to act only according to its calculations, in the interest of the security of its citizens and its right to self defense," local news service Ynet quoted Livni as saying.
Though Israel decided to ignore the UNSC resolution and continue its operation in Gaza, it remains to be seen whether the Jewish state will expand the operation, which means Israel will possibly send tens of thousands of reserve soldiers into Gaza to deal a harsher blow to Hamas.
It is reported that the IDF has been prepared for such an extensive deployment.
Local daily Ha'aretz reported Friday on its website that Israeli diplomatic-security cabinet ordered the IDF to expand its ongoing ground incursion against Hamas targets in Gaza.
Asked whether the IDF has received the order, an IDF spokeswoman told Xinhua on the phone that "we are not commenting on that."
"We will follow plans and decisions made by the government," she said, adding that "we do not elaborate on the operational details."
For its side, the Islamic Hamas movement has vowed that the only solution to the ongoing Gaza crisis would be Israeli retreat from Gaza, ceasing aggression and lifting the blockade, Lebanon's Elnashra website reported Friday.
"The enemy has started to realize that the military operations will not achieve the goals it sought," Osama Hamdan, Hamas representative in Lebanon, was quoted as saying.
He said that Israel's continuous aggression on Gaza is due to the "incompetence of the Arab countries," stressing that some Arab regimes have been "collaborating" with Israel and will be held "accountable" for that.
The Israeli operation in Gaza, dubbed Cast Lead, entered its 14th day on Friday, with IDF proceeding to strike Hamas targets and Palestinian militants in Gaza continuing to fire rockets into Israel.
Since Jan. 3, the operation beginning on Dec. 27 entered its second phase, with the IDF launching a large-scale ground incursion into Gaza.
At least 801 Palestinians have been killed and about 3,200 wounded since the operation. On the Israeli side, 13 people have died, including four killed in rocket attacks. The other nine were soldiers killed in ground battle in Gaza.
(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2009)