UN accuses Israel of using excessive force in Gaza

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice walks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for a meeting at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Palestinian officials at the plant warned it would take months and cost millions to repair the transformers, which have been non-operational since the raid, enforcing electricity rationing and provoking health concerns.

"This a very clear disproportional use. Maybe this is the clearest of it all," Egeland told reporters as he toured the Gaza power plant which had supplied 70 percent of the power to the 1.4 million residents.

"Civilian infrastructure is protected... the law is very clear," he said.

Israel fired eight missiles into the plant's six transformers not long after midnight on June 28, launching a huge offensive after two Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants and a third snatched in a cross-border raid.

"This plant is more important for hospitals, for sewage, and for water of civilians than for any Hamas man or (Islamic) Jihad man with some kind of a missile on his shoulder who doesn't need electricity, as a mother trying to care for her child."

Before the strike, the Gaza Power Generating Company plant pumped out 140 megawatts and provided 70 percent of Gaza's electricity needs.

Today, Israel provides residents of one of the most densely populated places on earth with 57 percent of their power needs, Stuart Shepherd, UN humanitarian affairs officer, told AFP.

People in Gaza were "going through a crisis of very little water, very little electricity" causing "more diarrhoea, more diseases and more suffering," Egeland said.

A total of 114 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have now been killed in Israel's offensive, which the army said intends to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel and to recover missing Corporal Gilad Shalit.

"Missiles have to stop and destructive incursions have to stop," Egeland said.

Palestinian militants on Tuesday nonetheless fired three rockets into southern Israel, lightly wounding one foreign worker.

Inspecting the ruined transformers with Egeland, Rafiq Maliha, project manager at the plant, said direct losses amounted to 10 million dollars, rising to more than 15-16 million dollars taking production losses into account.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday there was a need to remain focused on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel despite the crisis in Lebanon.

Rice met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after visiting Lebanon and Israel, where she discussed the two weeks of fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas.

"Even as the Lebanon situation is resolved, we must remain focused on what is happening here, in the Palestinian territories," Rice told a news conference. "On our desires to get back to ... (the) vision of two states living side by side in peace."