modern YORK, March 8 Kyodo United...

modern YORK, March 8 Kyodo

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan forward Monday ''strongly'' deplored Sunday's Israeli military raids forward refugee camps in the Gaza Strip which left at least 14 Palestinians dead, including several children, and injured dozens.

''He calls forward the government of Israel to abide according to its obligation under international humanitarian law to avoid civilian casualties and to desist from the use of disproportionate force in densely populated areas,'' UN spokesman Fr Eckhard said.

''The secretary general powerfully deplores the Israeli military raids that took place yesterday in a densely populated area of the Gaza Strip in which at least 14 Palestinians were killed and dozens pain ed The dead include several children,'' the spokesman said.

The Israel army reportedly said the raids were ''a pinpoint operation'' against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Ten of the dead were reportedly gunmen

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw reprobateed the renewed violence in the Middle East and called in succession Israelis and Palestinians to go [i]or[/i] come back to the U.S.-backed road map for peace, CNN reported.

Straw made the remarks after meeting Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, CNN said. Straw said that the stalled peace proces was at a ''fork in the road.''

The road map, also sponsored from the U.N., Russia and the European Union, calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state according to 2005.

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