Gaza attacks continue as UN calls for ceasefire

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel and Hamas continued to exchange rocket attacks on Friday as the UN Security Council called for an "immediate" and "durable" ceasefire in Gaza.

A Hamas spokesman said the group "is not interested" in the ceasefire because it was not consulted and the resolution did not meet its minimum demands.

Israel's top leaders were set on Friday to discuss the ceasefire or a possible expansion of the ground offensive.

An Israeli airstrike strike killed three people, while another flattened a five-storey building in northern Gaza and left seven dead, Hamas officials said.

Friday's deaths in Gaza pushed the Palestinian death toll to about 760 in the near two-week conflict. Most of those killed were civilians, health officials said.

Hamas also continued to bombard residents of southern Israel, with rockets hitting in and around Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashkelon on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Security Council action came hours after UN agencies suspended food deliveries to Gaza, and the Red Cross accused Israel of blocking medical assistance.

The vote was 14-0, with the United States abstaining. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US "fully supports" the resolution but abstained "to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation" with Israel and Hamas.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas envoy to Lebanon, told the Al Arabiya satellite channel that the group "is not interested in the resolution because it does not meet the demands of the movement."

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the UN failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people.

"This resolution doesn't mean that the war is over," he told the Al Jazeera satellite television network. "We call on the Palestinian fighters to mobilize and be ready to face the offensive, and we urge the Arab masses to carry on with their angry protests," he said.