HIGHLIGHTS: An Israeli Settler Killed and Another Seriously Wounded in Northern West Bank||Hamas Orders Its Cells and Activists to Unleash a Sea of Blood against Israel||PA UN Representative Says Israel's Crime Falls within Jurisdiction of International Criminal Court||Arab UN Ambassadors Circulate Draft Resolution Demanding Israel's Withdrawal from Palestinian Cities and Towns|| STORY: An Israeli occupation army spokesman today announced that an Israeli settler was killed and another was injured when their car was sprayed with automatic gunfire at dawn Thursday near the internationally illegal settlement of Zahah in the Northern West Bank. The source added that the injuried settler's wounds were serious.

The incident occurred not far from the site of a bomb attack on an Israeli bus on 16 July, which resulted in nine deaths.
Israel meanwhile braced for Palestinian Resistance revenge attacks as Hamas and all the other resistance groups swore they would make Israel pay in kind for the attack when a guided bomb reportedly weighing one tonne was dropped on a crowded residential area in Gaza City killing the military chief of the Hamas, his bodyguard and 13 civilians most of them children and women late Monday.

Hamas on Wednesday called on all its cells of activists in the Palestinian territories and Israel to prepare to unleash a "sea of blood" against Israel, the group's armed wing said in a statement.

After the attack, Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas official, said: "I think the retaliation is coming and everything will be considered as a target for our assassins."

ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE 'A WAR CRIME'

In New York, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations told the UN Security Council that Israel's deadly air strike on Gaza City was a war crime which falls within the jurisdiction of the world's new criminal court.

In a letter to the head of the UN Security Council, Nasser al-Kidwa said the killings of 15 Palestinians on Monday was the first war crime to have been committed since the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened on 1 July.

Mr al-Kidwa's letter was being circulated as the Security Council - the UN's highest body - debated the Israeli attack, which has already drawn international condemnation.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) itself would not be able to file a case, as the ICC can only investigate cases brought forward by states, which the PA is not.

However, the court is allowed to investigate cases referred to it by the Security Council.

Its jurisdiction began on 1 July, but no cases have yet been brought to it, and Israel is one of several countries which have refused to ratify its 1998 founding treaty.

ARABS CIRULATE DRAFT RESOLUTION

Arab members of the UN Security Council called Wednesday's session to discuss the strike, and have been circulating a draft resolution they want to see adopted by the body.

It demands an end to all acts of violence and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the positions they occupied before the current Palestinian uprising started in September 2000.

It is thought that Mr al-Kidwa's demand for the involvement of the ICC will also receive considerable attention at the session.

U.S. VETO

U.S. officials said Washington, Israel's closest ally, would oppose the draft if put to a vote. But Western diplomats said revisions of the document might yet result in adoption before the end of the week.

However, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said past council resolutions formed a "more than adequate basis to guide efforts to achieve a negotiated solution" and the world should focus on "constructive diplomatic efforts."

Reiterating President Bush's goal of two states living side by side in peace within secure borders within three years, Negroponte said the council also had to address the action of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other "Palestinian terrorist groups."

"We should question why they are not more often a focus of council attention," he said.

FIERCE ARAB DENUNCIATION

Al-Kidwa said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his "lieutenants" should be tried for war crimes. The world needed to stop Israel actions whether on the ground or in the political sphere, he said.

He said Sharon used every excuse to avoid a genuine peace settlement "so that the occupation and the colonization and settlement activities could continue."

Syrian Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe, holding up pictures of wounded children, said Israel had committed "massacres" against Palestinians almost since its inception. Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Fadaifard spoke of "racist" and "vicious measures" against defenseless Palestinians.

SUICIDE BOMBINGS "LEGITIMATE

And Iraq's Abdul Munim al-Kadhe, the only speaker to never use the word "Israel," bluntly declared that that suicide bombers against Israeli civilians were "a legitimate right, a way to achieve emancipation and legitimate self-defense against the Zionist military machine."

He said the "worldwide Zionist movement" was characterized by "racism ... deriving from Nazism and so forth."

WORLDWIDE CONDEMNATION

Europeans also said the raid was unreasonable and risked squashing all peace efforts. Irish Ambassador John Ryan said an attack of this sort was bound to cause casualties. "To suggest anything otherwise is disingenuous
British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock, called the bomb dropped in Gaza City "unacceptable and harmful." Israel had a right to protect itself but not through excessive acts.

And Indian Ambassador V.K. Nambiar told the council: "Even while we have noted the statement by Israel that this was a mistake, we cannot but strongly deplore such acts of unwarranted violence and indiscriminate killings at a time when serious efforts are afoot to broker a cease-fire

PHOTO CAPTION

(Top L) Palestinians carry the flag-drapped body of a child during a funeral for three children recovered from the rubble of an apartment building destroyed Tuesday by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, July 24, 2002. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

(Bottom L) A masked Palestinian Resistance man holds his rifle on July 24, 2002 as he stands by houses in Gaza that were damaged in the Israeli air attack. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

(Top R) Nasser Al-Qidwa, Palestinian Envoy to the United Nations

(Bottom R) A boy holds Palestinian flag July 24, 2002, as he walks between several houses in Gaza destroyed by an Israeli warplane July 23. Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters