The death toll of the open-ended incursion reached 72 Palestinians (AFP)

GAZA CITY, October 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli occupation forces pressed ahead with their military offensive on the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing six more people on Monday, October 4, amid mounting Palestinian criticism for deafening international silence and apathy.

Ramzi Hassaballah, 21, was fatally hit by a bullet in the eye in Jabaliya, bringing the overall toll to six for the day, Palestinian medics and security sources said.

Five Palestinians were killed in an air strike on the Gaza Strip’s largest refugee camp just before dawn, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Two senior Hamas activists were also seriously injured in an Israeli helicopter gunship attack in Gaza City overnight.

Two rockets were fired at Mohammad Al Simri and Hassan Al Jabari, and a Palestinian woman was also said to have been injured in the attack.

Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalon warned Monday that the raid could last weeks.

"Our forces are ready to operate not just for days but for weeks," he told the Israeli army radio.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Sunday, October 2, the offensive would continue until.

"This is not a short operation. We should act for as long as the danger exists," he told the Israeli army radio in his first public comments on the operation.

"We must broaden the area of action to push back the rocket launchers so Jewish areas along the border are no longer within their range," Sharon said.

Since Israeli unleashed its military might, 72 Palestinians have been killed in the bloodiest raid on the Gaza Strip since the start of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation four years ago.

Mothers weeping over corpses of their sons, torn-up roads, demolished houses, deserted shops, damaged sewerage systems and a prevailing stink of death are the hallmarks of Jabaliya refugee camp.

The death toll from the Jabaliya incursion has swept past that of a May raid in the southern Gaza city of Rafah , where dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds of homes bulldozed flat.

Security Council Meet

"Such action will increase the cycle of violence and fuel the phenomenon of extremism in the region," said Abdullah (AFP)

Amid Palestinian cries of international silence and apathy vis-à-vis their ordeal, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting later Monday to discuss the Gaza onslaught.

Algeria, which currently holds a rotating seat on the 15-member body, requested the meeting Sunday, after a request from the Arab League.

The pan-Arab body had tasked Arab representatives in New York "to make an urgent appeal to the General Assembly and/or Security Council to halt Israel's continued war of extermination against the Palestinian people".

They will also call for international protection of the Palestinians "in line with the Geneva accords (on people living under occupation) and international laws", according to a statement carried by AFP.

The sweeping Israeli operation drew flack from United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Sunday.

"The secretary general calls on the government of Israel to halt its military incursions into the Gaza Strip, which have led to the deaths of scores of Palestinians, among them many civilians, including children," his spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement.

"The secretary general likewise calls on the Palestinian Authority to take action to halt the firing of rockets against Israeli targets by Palestinian militants. He reminds both sides to this conflict that they have a legal obligation to protect all civilians."

Jordan's King Abdullah II had accused Israel of "arrogance" and warned that its policies would fuel extremism in the region.

"Israel's arrogance and the pursuit of its policy of assassinations and mass killings of Palestinian civilians as well as the destruction of property and infrastructure in the Palestinian territories does not serve the peace process," he was quoted as saying by the official Petra news agency.

"Such action will increase the cycle of violence and fuel the phenomenon of extremism in the region," the monarch told a visiting British delegation.

Deafening Silence

The Palestinians lashed out at the international community for its "silence" in the face of the incursion.

"The absence of international reaction is encouraging Sharon to assert that the operation will continue, although the situation is getting worse and the Palestinian people are enduring massacres," Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP Sunday.

"Sharon's objective is to destroy the Palestinian Authority and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), and to reoccupy the Gaza Strip in order to turn it into one vast prison," Erakat said, warning that the raid would lead to "a flare-up in violence and extremism".

After an emergency session of the Palestinian parliament Sunday, speaker Rawhi Fatouh called for international observers to be dispatched immediately to the war-torn area.

"We call on the International Parliamentary Union and the Arab Parliamentary Union to send delegations to Palestine to see the situation on the ground and to put pressure on their governments to intervene and stop this Israeli aggression."

The Palestinian cabinet on Saturday, October 2, declared a state of emergency, with President Yasser Arafat appealing for international help against the "criminal and racist" Israeli campaign.

Israel claimed that the Gaza offensive is aimed at stopping rocket attacks by resistance fighters at Jewish settlements.

Palestinian experts have said Israel wants to flex its muscles ahead of a potential pullout of the Strip, noting that it was being haunted by a "Lebanese complex", when Hezbollah forced the Israeli army to withdraw from Southern Lebanon.