Region

BAGHDAD — Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum was named Iraq's new president on Thursday hours after an attack on a prison convoy killed dozens of people, brutally underscoring the challenges faced by the country's leaders as they struggle to form a new government.

Massoum, 76, one of the founders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party led by the previous president, Jalal Talabani, accepted the position after winning two-thirds of the votes, noting the "huge security, political and economic tasks" facing the government.

Last month's rapid advance of the Islamic State extremist group, which captured Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the withdrawal of US troops in 2011 and inflamed already-existing tensions between sectarian and political rivals.

Hours before Massoum was elected, militants fired mortar shells at army bases where detainees facing terrorism charges were being held in Taji, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital. Fearing a jailbreak, authorities evacuated the facilities, officials said.

But as the prisoners were being bussed through a remote area nearby militants attacked again, this time with roadside bombs, igniting a gunbattle that left 52 prisoners and eight soldiers dead, the officials said, adding that another eight soldiers and seven prisoners were wounded.

It was not immediately clear if the prisoners were killed by soldiers or militants, or if the Islamic State group was involved.

Islamic State militants have staged several jailbreaks, including a complex, military-style assault on two Baghdad-area prisons in July 2013 that freed more than 500 inmates.

The vote for president — a largely ceremonial post previously held by ailing Kurdish leader Talabani — is widely viewed as a step toward achieving consensus among political rivals, seen as necessary for tackling the deteriorating security crisis.

Massoum is considered a soft-spoken moderate, known for keeping good relations with Sunni and Shiite Arab politicians.

He was born in what is now the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil in 1938. He entered politics when he was 16 years old, taking part in Kurdish-organized demonstrations. He joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1964.

From 1973 to 1975 he was the Cairo representative of Kurdish rebels battling the Arab-dominated government in Baghdad, then went on to establish the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan with six Kurdish politicians, including Talabani.

The next step in Iraq's political transition will be for Massoum, who has already officially assumed the title of president, to select a candidate for prime minister to try to form a new government.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's bloc won the most seats in April elections, but he has faced mounting pressure to step aside, with critics accusing him of monopolizing power and alienating the country's Sunni and Kurdish minorities, contributing to the latest unrest.

Al-Maliki has however vowed to remain in the post he has held since 2006.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad earlier Thursday, urging lawmakers to "find a common ground" so they can address the crisis sparked by the rapid advance of the Islamic State extremist group and allied Sunni militants across much of northern and western Iraq last month.

At a press conference with al-Maliki, Ban said Iraq is facing an "existential threat," but one that could be overcome if it forms a "thoroughly inclusive government."

Under an unofficial agreement dating back to the 2003 US-led invasion, the presidency is held by a Kurd while the prime minister is Shiite and the parliament speaker is Sunni.

Speaking alongside the UN secretary-general, Al-Maliki said he is committed to quickly forming a government.

"Despite the fact that we have problems...we are moving at a confident pace to implement the mechanisms of the democratic work," al-Maliki said.

More than a million Iraqis have been displaced this year, many of them fleeing the latest wave of violence, according to the U.N.

Ban strongly condemned the persecution of religious and ethnic minority groups by jihadi militants in Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq, and offered continued UN support to the refugees fleeing the violence.

LONDON — A British lawmaker apologised Wednesday after tweeting that he would likely fire rockets into Israel if he lived in the Gaza Strip.

“The big question is — if I lived in Gaza would I fire a rocket? — probably yes,” Liberal Democrat member of parliament David Ward said on Twitter.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews called on Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, to suspend Ward once again from the junior party in Britain’s governing coalition.

Ward has previously been suspended from the centrist party following remarks about Israel and the Jews.

The Liberal Democrats condemned his tweet and said that given what it called a “categorical apology” from Ward, a meeting would be held between the chief whip and the MP.

The party will then decide if further disciplinary action should be taken.

Ward had followed up his initial tweet with another saying: “Ich bin ein Palestinian — the West must make up its mind — which side is it on?”

After facing criticism from across the political spectrum over his rockets tweet and telling the BBC he understood the mindset of people in the Gaza Strip, the MP issued a statement saying: “I utterly condemn the violence on both sides in Israel and Gaza.”

“I condemn the actions of Hamas and my comments were not in support of firing rockets into Israel. If they gave the opposite impression, I apologise.

“However, while I defend the right of Israel to exist and defend itself, I will continue to speak out for the rights of the Palestinian people who are facing untold suffering.

“I can understand their plight and desperation.”

The 16-day conflict has claimed the lives of more than 670 people in Gaza and more than 30 in Israel, which says it is acting to stop the Hamas Islamist movement firing rockets over the border.

WASHINGTON — More than 50 former Israeli soldiers have refused to serve in the nation’s reserve force, citing regret over their part in a military they said plays a central role in oppressing Palestinians, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

“We found that troops who operate in the occupied territories aren’t the only ones enforcing the mechanisms of control over Palestinian lives. In truth, the entire military is implicated. For that reason, we now refuse to participate in our reserve duties and we support all those who resist being called to service,” the soldiers wrote in a petition posted online and first reported by the newspaper.

While some Israelis have refused to serve in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, the military’s structure is such that serving in any capacity forces one to play a role in the conflict, said the soldiers, most of whom are women who would have been exempted from combat.

“Many of us served in logistical and bureaucratic support roles; there, we found that the entire military helps implement the oppression of the Palestinians,” they said.

Their comments come as the conflict in Gaza continues to escalate, displacing thousands more Palestinians in the battered territory even as the United States presses both sides for an immediate ceasefire and longer-term peace plan.

Earlier this month, Israel said it was mobilising more reservists in anticipation of increased fighting.

In the petition, the soldiers pointed to the army’s structure and fundamental role in Israeli society as reasons for being unable to decouple any form of service from the fighting.

“The military plays a central role in every action plan and proposal discussed in the national conversation, which explains the absence of any real argument about non-military solutions to the conflicts Israel has been locked in with its neighbours,” the soldiers wrote.

“To us, the current military operation and the way militarisation affects Israeli society are inseparable.”

They said they opposed the Israeli Army and conscription law because of how women are limited to low-ranking secretarial positions and because of a screening system that discriminates against Jews whose families originate from Arab nations.

CAIRO — President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Wednesday defended Egypt’s role in trying to broker a Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas, which accuses him of proposing a ceasefire favourable to Israel.

Unlike his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi whom he toppled and detained last year, ex-army chief Sisi has sought to isolate the Palestinian movement in the neighbouring Gaza Strip.

The Cairo government worked to contain the crisis even before it escalated into a full-blown conflict on July 8 that has killed more than 650 Palestinians and at least 31 Israelis, Sisi said.

“Egypt has sacrificed, for the Palestinian cause and the Palestinians, 100,000 martyrs,” he said in a televised address, referring to casualties in Egypt’s wars with Israel between 1948 and 1973, before Cairo signed a 1979 peace treaty.

“So it is difficult for anyone to engage in one-upmanship, not just regarding [our role] with the Palestinian brothers but also the Arab region,” he said in a speech to mark the 1952 military overthrow of the monarchy in Egypt.

Since Morsi’s overthrow in July 2013, Egypt has been at odds with Turkey and Qatar, both of which back his Muslim Brotherhood and have been critical of Sisi’s stand on the Gaza conflict.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Sisi a “tyrant” who could not be trusted to mediate a truce, while Hamas demands a role for Ankara and Doha, which hosts its political leadership, in any truce negotiations.

Morsi mediated a truce to end an eight-day conflict with Israel in 2012 that Hamas was able to represent as a “victory”.

Sisi said his truce proposal would give Hamas its key demand of an end to the eight-year blockade of Gaza once calm is restored.

Hamas, however, insists on a comprehensive agreement before it agrees to a ceasefire.

It also demands Egypt open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, the only passage to the coastal enclave not controlled by Israel.

Hamas argues that Egypt’s proposal, which is backed by the United States, United Nations and Arab League, would allow Israel to dictate if and when to ease its blockade on Gaza.

TRIPOLI — The General National Congress (GNC), which has governed violence-wracked Libya since dictator Muammar Qadhafi’s overthrow, said Wednesday it will hand over legislative power to a newly elected parliament on August 4.

But hopes that the announcement would signal an end to fighting among rival factions were dashed as a more than week-long battle intensified for control of Tripoli airport.

“Monday, August 4 has been set as the date for the transfer of power... to the elected chamber,” the GNC said in a statement signed by its speaker, Nuri Abu Sahmein.

The handover is to take place within two weeks as specified in Monday’s publication of the election results.

Under a law passed by the GNC, the new assembly is to sit in the eastern city of Benghazi, which was the bastion of the 2011 uprising but has since epitomised the lawlessness of post-Qadhafi Libya.

In Tripoli, there was no sign of a ceasefire on Wednesday between rival factions fighting around the capital’s airport.

A fresh appeal from the transitional government for a humanitarian truce fell on deaf ears, as the leader of the interim ruling body, Abdullah Al Thani, again called for “an immediate end” to the fighting before it led the country to “a point of no return”.

Throughout the day, explosions could be heard from the centre of the capital and plumes of smoke were clearly visible.

“Rockets fell on several homes and many families have fled the fighting,” local resident Mohamed Farhat, whose house on the airport road was hit by a missile, told AFP.

The airport has been closed since July 13 because of clashes which have left at least 47 dead and 120 wounded, according to the health ministry.

The clashes, the most violent since Qadhafi’s overthrow, started with an assault on the airport by a coalition of armed groups, mainly Islamists, which has since been backed by factions from the eastern town of Misrata.

Reluctance 

The assailants are battling to flush out fellow former rebels from Zintan, southwest of the capital, who have controlled the airport for the past three years.

The battle has caused serious damage at the airport and at least a dozen aircraft have been destroyed or partly destroyed.

An airport spokesman has put the cost of the damage at “several hundred million dollars”.

Viewed by their opponents as the armed wing of Libya’s liberal movement, the Zintan brigades also hold several other strategic military and civil sites in the southern districts of Tripoli.

The battle is seen as part of a struggle for political and regional influence at a time when the new parliament, elected in a June 25 poll, prepares to take power.

The liberal factions have won the most seats in the new assembly, unlike in the previous Islamist-controlled GNC, according to political analysts, and the Islamists are now trying to reassert their influence by military means.

Many newly elected MPs have expressed reluctance about the proposed GNC move to Benghazi, with some refusing to take up their seats because of the city’s rampant security problems.

This week alone, violence in Benghazi has cost the lives of at least 43 people, according to medical and military sources.

 ‘Eradicate terrorism’ 

At least five soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a double suicide bombing on a special forces base under the command of Colonel Wanis Abu Khamada in the southeast of the city.

On Monday, an Islamist militia attacked a military barracks, leaving at least 16 dead.

A renegade general, Khalifa Haftar, backed by Abu Khamada, has since May led an operation “to eradicate terrorism in Benghazi” by targeting Islamists.

Islamist groups such as Ansar Al Sharia, classified as a terrorist organisation by Washington, have held sway in Benghazi since the fall of Qadhafi.

BRUSSELS — The European Union on Wednesday froze the assets of two oil-trading firms accused of organising covert shipments of oil to Syria.

They were among nine organisations and three people added to the EU’s Syria sanctions list, published in the bloc’s Official Journal. Also listed were branches of the Syrian defence ministry.

The government of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has been blacklisted by Western powers for its role in the country’s three-year civil war, which has killed at least 150,000 people, according to one monitoring group.

The two oil-trading firms were Beirut-based Oceans Petroleum Trading, also called Overseas Petroleum Trading or Overseas Petroleum Co., and Tri Oceans Trading, an Egyptian firm. Their assets in the 28-nation EU will be frozen.

Both are accused of “providing support to the Syrian regime and benefitting from the regime by organising covert shipments of oil to the Syrian regime,” the Official Journal said.

Reuters reported last December that the Syrian government was getting substantial imports of Iraqi crude oil from an Egyptian port. Such under-the-radar trading has kept Assad’s military running despite the Western sanctions.

Damascus relies heavily on strategic ally Iran as its main supplier of crude oil. But Reuters’ examination of the documents showed that millions of barrels of crude delivered to Assad’s government on Iranian ships has actually come from Iraq, through Lebanese and Egyptian trading companies.

Arranging shipments?

According to documents seen by Reuters last December, Overseas Petroleum Trading invoiced Syria for arranging at least two shipments and was involved in a third. Cairo-based Tri-Ocean Energy was responsible for loading Iraqi oil into at least one. Both firms denied any involvement in the Syria trade last December.

State-owned Syrian refining companies put on the list were Baniyas Refinery Co. and the Homs Refinery Co. The EU accuses them of providing financial support to the government.

Hashim Anwar Al Aqqad, a Syrian businessman and chairman of the Akkad Group of Companies, was added to the list as well. The group operate in various sectors, including oil and gas. Aqqad is alleged to have provided support to and benefited from the Syrian government.

Also added were a military commander, Colonel Suhayl Hasan, and Amr Armanazi, the head of a Syrian scientific centre, which the EU said had helped the Syrian army acquire equipment used for “surveillance and repression of demonstrators”. They are also banned from entering the EU.

The new listings bring to 192 the number of people sanctioned by the EU and to 62 the number of organisations.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers on Wednesday postponed choosing a new president for their ailing country while air strikes, suicide car bombs and summary executions yielded their daily grim crop of bodies.

Parliament adjourned without even broaching the issue and agreed to meet again on Thursday, their last chance to pick a new leader before the week-long Eid Al Fitr holiday.

A government air raid on the jihadist-held town of Sharqat, nearly 300 kilometres  northwest of Baghdad, killed at least three women and a child, a senior army official told AFP.

Police and medical sources said another four people were killed in the strike, which destroyed the municipality building and a house in an area believed to shelter Islamic State (IS) fighters.

Also in Sharqat, IS gunmen killed a woman former candidate for parliament and wounded a women’s rights activist, tribal and military sources said.

Civilians have paid a heavy price for government air attacks on the IS, which conquered large swathes of Iraq’s west and north in a devastating offensive last month.

According to a Human Rights Watch report released on Wednesday but before the latest strike, at least 75 civilians have died in similar raids since June 6 in four cities, including Sharqat.

‘Awful toll’ 

“The government’s air strikes are wreaking an awful toll on ordinary residents,” HRW’s deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said in a statement.

The New York-based watchdog was particularly critical of the government targeting hospitals in militant-controlled areas and the use of barrel bombs on the rebel-held city of Fallujah.

Another government air strike Wednesday damaged a hospital complex in the main IS hub of Mosul, causing no casualties, a resident and a hospital worker told AFP.

The bodies of eight soldiers and allied militiamen executed on Tuesday were found just north of Samarra, a Sunni-dominated city home to one of Shiite Islam’s most important shrines.

In Jalawla in Diyala province, police and medics said IS executed four men because their brothers were policemen.

Despite the billions of dollars poured into training and equipment during the seven-year US occupation, Iraq’s million-strong army intially disintegrated when IS fighters attacked on June 9 and captured second city Mosul.

Eyewitnesses there said the Sunni jihadist group, which sees Shiites as heretics, blew up a Shiite shrine and Shiite prayer hall on Wednesday.

Jihadist cells have continued to wreak havoc in Baghdad also, with bombings mostly targeting the police.

The toll from a suicide car bomb blast at a police checkpoint guarding the entrance to Baghdad’s mainly Shiite neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah on Tuesday rose to 32, according to medical sources.

‘Dancing in blood’ 

Last month’s Sunni militant offensive led to the proclamation of a “caliphate” straddling Iraq and Syria by the IS, once an Al Qaeda offshoot that now appears to have outgrown the network founded by Osama Bin Laden.

The onslaught plunged Iraq into its worst crisis in years and exacerbated ethno-sectarian tensions that had already killed thousands this year alone.

Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has cast himself as a commander seeking to preserve Iraqi unity, but critics say his own brand of sectarian politics is partly to blame.

Many armed groups, religious and political leaders among the minority Sunni Arab community have sought to distance themselves from IS.

But some also see the offensive as protecting Sunnis from persecution by Shiite-dominated security forces and as their best chance to force Maliki from power.

Maliki, speaking on state television, accused some lawmakers of exploiting the chaos.

The problem, he said, was not IS, “but the politicians who play and dance in the blood and remains of Iraqis killed”.

The rebuke was a thinly veiled attack on Sunni politicians he sees as sympathetic to the IS, and to Kurds who used last month’s security vacuum to seize disputed towns and long-coveted oil fields.

Progress in renewing Iraq’s fractious government has been slow and halting.

Postponing the presidential vote, lawmakers spent Wednesday’s session discussing the 2014 national budget, almost eight months into the year, and eventually adjourned until Thursday.

Whoever succeeds the 80-year-old Jalal Talabani, who returned last week from 18 months of medical treatment in Germany to complete his tenure on home soil, will have limited powers.

But the person chosen could reveal what alliances have been formed in political horse-trading and give a hint of who could become the next premier.

TEL AVIV — Washington’s top diplomat said global efforts to end 16 days of bloodshed in Gaza were progressing Wednesday as the fighting raged on and airlines kept flights suspended over rocket fears.

As US and UN diplomats continued intensive diplomacy, the Islamist Hamas movement rejected any truce without the lifting of Israel’s eight-year blockade on Gaza.

“We will not accept any initiative that does not lift the blockade on our people and that does not respect their sacrifices,” Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal said.

Hamas hailed the suspension of Tel Aviv flights by many world airlines as a “great victory”.

“The success of Hamas in closing Israeli airspace is a great victory for the resistance, and is the crown of Israel’s failure,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said as traffic to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport slowed to a trickle after a rocket hit close to runways on Tuesday.

As US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN chief Ban Ki-moon held talks in Jerusalem, they said they had pooled their efforts in the hope of boosting the quest for a truce in a conflict that has killed 695 Gazans, 34 Israelis and a Thai worker.

“We have certainly made some steps forward, but there is still work to be done,” Kerry said as he met the UN chief for the second time this week.

“We are now joining our forces in strength to make a ceasefire as soon as possible,” Ban said, warning there was no time to lose as concern mounted over the rising civilian body count.

The US diplomat offered a similar message to the Palestinians as he met President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah

“We have in the last 24 hours made some progress in moving toward that goal,” he said before heading to Tel Aviv for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The men met for about two hours but made no statements after their talks. Kerry then left for Cairo and Netanyahu opened a meeting of his security Cabinet.

Britain joined the truce efforts with new Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond holding late-night talks with Abbas.

Death toll mounts 

Palestinian medics said Israeli attacks on Wednesday hiked the death toll to 695 with a Gaza-based rights group saying more than 80 per cent of them were civilians.

Most of Wednesday’s dead were in Khuzaa on the Israeli border, close to the southern city of Khan Younis, the scene of very heavy fighting since before dawn.

In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian shot by Israeli troops during a pre-dawn clash died of his injuries, Palestinian officials said.

The army said three more soldiers were killed in combat inside Gaza on Wednesday, raising to 32 the total number of soldiers killed since the start of a ground operation on July 17.

A Thai farm labourer also died when a rocket fired from Gaza struck the greenhouse where he was working in southern Israel, police said.

On the ground, the fighting was briefly suspended in several flashpoint areas to allow ambulances to extricate the wounded, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

A spokeswoman said seven ambulances had entered Shejaiya near Gaza City and another nine ambulances had entered Khuzaa, while a third convoy had entered Beit Hanun in the north.

In Gaza City, hundreds of people, mostly women and children, packed into the pews of Saint Prophyrios Greek Orthodox Church seeking shelter from the violence outside.

Kerry’s arrival in Tel Aviv came a day after a Gaza rocket struck close to the main international airport, prompting the US Federal Aviation Authority to ban commercial flights to and from Israel for at least 24 hours.

It renewed the ban for another 24 hours on Wednesday, citing the “potentially hazardous situation”.

And its European counterpart advised all carriers to avoid Tel Aviv “until further notice” in a move mirrored Wednesday by Royal Jordanian and Turkish Airlines, prompting Hamas to hail a “great victory”.

UN slams Israel, Hamas 

Kerry began his regional mission in Cairo, discussing ceasefire proposals with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, that he said provided a “framework” to end the fighting.

An initial Egyptian proposal calling for a halt to hostilities ahead of talks was accepted by Israel early last week but rejected by Hamas, which wants agreement on a comprehensive package before holding its fire.

As the violence raged on, UN rights chief Navi Pillay condemned both Israel and Hamas at an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

She said Israeli attacks which had killed civilians, among them children, “could amount to war crimes” but also denounced Hamas for its “indiscriminate attacks” on Israeli civilians.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said 81.5 per cent of the dead were civilians, 24 per cent of them children.

The UN Human Rights Council voted to launch a probe into Israel’s Gaza offensive.

The United States was the sole member to vote against, while European countries abstained.

GENEVA — The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved “disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks”, including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians.

At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favour, one against (the United States) with 17 abstentions (including all nine European Union members).

“We came here to try to achieve together with you at least minimum justice for children who are being dismembered, for women whose bodies are lying in the streets, to find some justice for those who are being exterminated,” said Ibrahim Khraishi, ambassador of the Palestinian observer mission to the UN in Geneva.

Israel and its ally United States rejected the probe, calling it one-sided and counterproductive amid efforts to clinch a ceasefire. Israel has observer status at the talks.

Israel Ambassador Eviator Manor, in remarks before the vote, told the forum: “Why does this council believe that naming and shaming Israel will get it anywhere?

“Throughout the entire escalation of events, Israel has always acted with maximum restraint, fully committed to international law in general and the laws of armed conflict.”

Israel had established its own special commission of inquiry “with a scope beyond what is required under international and criminal law,” Manor said.

“Hamas is the aggressor. Hamas is the one committing war crimes... Open your eyes to reality,” he said.

Possible war crimes

UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay said that Israel may have committed war crimes by killing civilians and shelling houses and hospitals during its offensive in Gaza that began on July 8.

She also condemned the firing of rockets and mortars by Palestinian fighters into Israel, saying such acts also constitute breaches of international law.

Pillay, citing cases Israeli air strikes and shelling hitting houses and hospitals in the crowded coastal enclave, said: “These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.

“Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated,” she said.

Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge, said that any warning by Israel to Gaza residents ahead of strikes must be “clear, credible and allow sufficient time for people to react”.

Gaza fighting continued to rage on Wednesday, displacing thousands more Palestinians in the battered territory as US Secretary of State John Kerry said indirect truce talks between Israel and Hamas had made some progress.

The Geneva forum convened the special one-day session at the request of the Palestinians, Egypt and Pakistan.

Israel, which accuses the council of bias, boycotted the Geneva forum for 20 months, resuming cooperation in October.

Its envoy Manor defended Israel’s air strikes and ground assault on Gaza as being necessary to defend the Israeli people.

The council “cannot be supportive of an organisation that is no different than Al Qaeda, IS [Islamic State], Boko Haram, Hizbollah and other extreme radical Islamist organisations that negate the very essence of human rights”, Manor said.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al Malki hit back, accusing Israeli forces of perpetrating “heinous crimes” by destroying whole neighbourhoods and killing entire families.

The UN aid agency OCHA said at least five entire families, with 36 people, had been killed in the past few days.

The United States said that Kerry was seeking to secure an immediate ceasefire based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement.

US Ambassador Keith Harper, calling for a vote, said that the resolution was “destructive” and a “political and biased instrument”.

“Once again, this Council fails to address the situation in Israel and in the Palestinian territories with any semblance of balance. There is no mention of indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas into Israel or the tunnels used to cause mayhem,” he said.

GENEVA — Thirty-six children in Syria and two in Iraq have been paralysed by polio since October, and the risk of the virus spreading further in the Middle East remains high, UN aid agencies said on Tuesday.

A crippling and incurable disease, polio erupted in October in the northeast province of Deir Al Zor, marking Syria’s first outbreak since 1999. The two cases recorded in Iraq this year were in Iraqi children living in the Baghdad area.

A polio vaccination campaign reached a record 25 million children in seven countries of the Middle East between December and June, but aid agencies need to go back to them again for follow-up shots in a second phase planned from August, the World Health Organisation and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.

The idea is to vaccinate every child between three and six times, but many of the 3 million children in Syria cannot be reached even once, the agencies said.

“It is now even more imperative to reach every child multiple times and to do whatever we can to vaccinate children we could not reach in previous rounds,” UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa Maria Calivis said in the report, “Outbreak in the Middle East — War in Syria opens the Door to an Old Enemy”.

Children in Syria are at greatest risk as routine immunisation has been disrupted and many health centres are severely damaged after more than three years of conflict, it said. Nearly three million Syrian refugees, including many health workers, have fled to neighbouring countries.

All but one of the 36 known polio cases in Syria were recorded last year, according to the WHO. Most were in Deir Al Zor, but others were in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Hassakeh.

Polio invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours.

“Right now we estimate that there are 765,000 children inside Syria who live in areas that are hard to reach. And as long as we don’t get full and regular access to these children, the chances of polio spreading further will continue to exist,” UNICEF spokeswoman Juliette Touma told a news briefing.

The government of President Bashar Assad and rebel groups have supported vaccination, WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari said.

“We had tremendous cooperation across lines, both opposition groups and the government are very committed to have polio vaccination for their children,” Bari told Reuters.

“There has been good coverage. It is really where active fighting is going on where it is hard to reach children and do any humanitarian work. Phase two is about reaching those hard to reach children,” she said.

A UN Security Council resolution last week authorised convoys into rebel-held areas without Syrian government consent at four border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. The mechanism is still being set up and convoys have yet to roll.

“We hope that resolution 2165 will allow us to reach some of the children that we have not reached. We have pre-positioned supplies in warehouses in Turkey and in Jordan,” Touma said.