Outrage doesn146;t stop Israel

8216;8216;So long as occupation continues, the intifada uprising will not stop,8217;8217; Barghouthi, 44, said. 8216;8216;As long as Palestinian mothers are weeping, Israeli mothers will also weep.8217;8217; The UN Security Council urged an end to violence after Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians on Wednesday. The Council convened at the behest of Arabs incensed at what they branded a 8216;8216;war crime8217;8217;. Reflecting its displeasure, the US, Israel8217;s chief ally, allowed adoption of the UN resolution by abstaining rather than using its veto.

Senior US officials kept up pressure by making phone calls to their Israeli counterparts urging them to wrap up the raid as quickly as possible. But the Army, which stormed the Rafah camp after losing 13 soldiers in Gaza ambushes last week, forged ahead on Thursday. Troops pushed into Rafah districts on the border with Egypt, where the Army says it is searching for tunnels used to smuggle in weapons.

Overnight helicopter strikes killed three militants and two other men. Witnesses said soldiers shot dead a 39-year-old man on his roof. The Army said troops had 8216;8216;spotted a terrorist and shot him8217;8217;. International outrage reached a new pitch on Wednesday after Israeli tanks and helicopters fired at protesters marching to demand humanitarian aid. The youngest of the dead was nine years old. Medics said more than 50 people were wounded. Violence has spiked since Israeli PM Ariel Sharon proposed evacuating troops and Jewish settlers in a plan backed by most Israelis and the US, but rejected by his Right-wing Likud party in a referendum this month.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops killed a senior Hamas militant in an exchange of fire in the town of Qalqilya.

Amid the bloodshed, a Tel Aviv court found Barghouthi, second in popularity only to Arafat among Palestinians, guilty of masterminding the killings of five people. But it cleared him in attacks that claimed the lives of more than 20 others. Prosecutors asked for five life sentences for Barghouthi, a West Bank leader who had maintained his innocence since his 2002 arrest but expressed pride in resistance to Israeli occupation.

Legal experts said the verdict was a blow to Israel8217;s bid to assign wholesale blame to Palestinian leaders for attacks carried out by militants alleged to be under their command. But that did not stop the judges from pointing the finger at Arafat. Their ruling charged that Barghouthi8217;s orders for attacks were 8216;8216;based on instructions8217;8217; from Arafat.

Justice Minister Yosef Lapid issued a threat that Israel might put Arafat on trial one day. An Arafat aide called the allegations 8216;8216;unfounded and baseless8217;8217;. 8212; Reuters