(Adds council statement, further comments) By Claudia Parsons UNITED NATIONS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday he expected Israel to provide urgently a full explanation of attacks on U.N. facilities in Gaza and said those responsible must be held accountable. Reporting to the U.N. Security Council on a trip to the Middle East, Ban said the recent violence in Gaza was a sign of "collective political failure" and called for a "massive international effort" to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Ban visited the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pledge aid for Palestinians after Israeli attacks killed 1,300 and made thousands homeless in a 22-day assault Israel said was to stop Hamas firing rockets at southern Israel. Hamas and Israel declared ceasefires on Sunday and Israel has withdrawn its troops from Gaza. Ban said he had demanded a thorough investigation by Israel of "several incidents of outrageous attacks against U.N. facilities," including U.N.-run schools that were being used as shelters and a warehouse storing aid supplies. Israel blames Hamas for fighting around civilians and sites run by the United Nations, which provides support for much of the 1.5 million population. "I expect to receive a full explanation of each incident and that those responsible will be held accountable for their actions," Ban said in a report delivered for him by Under Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe because Ban had lost his voice. He said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had promised to provide the results of an inquiry "on an urgent basis." "I will then decide on appropriate follow-up action." Other U.N. officials, including John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, have called for an independent investigation into the attacks. U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban also wanted one after the Israeli inquiry but could not himself initiate it. TOP PRIORITY Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour said he was satisfied with Ban's comments because in his view "determining the next step ... includes many things, including legal proceedings in (the) international legal system." The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, condemned by Washington and Israel as anti-Israeli, has said it will send a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli actions in Gaza. UNRWA will also conduct its own probe, Pascoe said. The top U.N. priority was to get relief supplies to Palestinians and ensure the current ceasefire is translated into a lasting one paving the way for a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pascoe told reporters. The U.N. Security Council, in its first comment since the end of the fighting, agreed on a statement welcoming the ceasefire and efforts to make it durable and sustainable. It urged all sides in the conflict to protect U.N. facilities and "ensure respect for international humanitarian law." Ban said Palestinian unity was vital and appealed to Arab and other countries to support efforts to reconcile President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, in the West Bank, and Hamas, which drove Fatah out of the Gaza Strip in 2007. He said the tools to end the Arab-Israeli conflict were in place in Security Council resolutions and an Arab peace initiative, but the political will had been lacking. "Nothing short of a massive international effort is now required to support, and insist on, a resolution of this conflict," Ban said, adding that he would urge U.S. President Barack Obama, who was inaugurated on Tuesday, to make Middle East peace one of his top priorities. (Editing by Chris Wilson)
Pro-Palestinians demonstrate outside a European Union foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels January 21, 2009. The Czech EU presidency said the ministers from the 27 EU states would meet Israeli Foreign Minister ...
