UNITED NATIONS — As Senator McCain chided the U.N. Security Council yesterday for failing to denounce Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel, American diplomats worked to fend off a Libyan push at the council to condemn Israel for its military actions to end those attacks.

Those opposing perspectives on the Gaza crisis — a distinctly pro-Israel tilt on the presidential campaign trail and hostility toward Israel at the United Nations — were on display yesterday afternoon as the Security Council imposed a third round of sanctions on Iran. Several U.N. diplomats nodded in agreement when the Iranian ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, denounced the council’s inability to act on what he called the “current holocaust” perpetrated by Israel in Gaza while punishing Iran for its “peaceful” nuclear program.

The hostilities between Hamas and Israel went into a short lull yesterday, after a week in which hundreds of Palestinian Arabs — most of them combatants — were killed in targeted Israeli air and ground offensives, and the range and accuracy of the rockets from Gaza increased significantly, reaching the major city of Ashkelon and beyond. Israeli forces withdrew after two days of ground incursions into Gaza yesterday, but Prime Minister Olmert vowed not to end operations until the rocket attacks cease.

A day after suspending peace talks with Israel, President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority hinted that he would resume them soon. Secretary of State Rice landed in Egypt, beginning a scheduled Middle East trip that will bring her to Israel today, just as the Bush administration’s attempts to promote the creation of a Palestinian Arab state have reached their lowest point since last year’s Annapolis summit.

“I’m hopeful that we can get through this current situation and get back to negotiations,” Ms. Rice said, the Associated Press reported.
Gaza also loomed large on the hustings.

Calling on Hamas to stop its “irresponsible aggression,” Senator Clinton said in a statement that the “terrorist” rocket attacks from Gaza were “aimed not only at the people of southern Israel; they are aimed at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.” She expressed regret at Mr. Abbas’s decision to suspend negotiations and added that the Bush administration “should have been taking a much more active role in bringing international pressure on Hamas to stop its attacks.”

The Gaza violence “is the result of Hamas’ decision to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, and Israel has a right to defend itself,” Senator Obama countered in his own statement. The Illinois senator added that he remains “very concerned about the fate of civilians” and urged “Israel to do all it can to avoid civilian deaths and to keep its focus on Hamas, which bears responsibility for these events.”

Israel, like every country, “has the right to respond to attacks,” Mr. McCain said at a press conference yesterday. “We obviously want a cease-fire, we want negotiations, but I continue to be disappointed in the United Nations Security Council and their failure to condemn the attacks from Gaza orchestrated by Hamas, a terrorist organization, into Israel.”

Soon after diplomats at the Security Council ended yesterday’s vote on a resolution imposing sanctions for the third time since December 2006 against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, they met in a closed-door session to discuss a proposed resolution on the situation in Gaza. American diplomats suggested “amendments” to a draft circulated by Libya on Saturday night, a Western diplomat familiar with the discussions said. Washington’s aim was to put the onus on Hamas, but Libya was unlikely to accept the American amendments, the diplomat, who requested anonymity, said.

Every council member supported the Iranian sanctions measure except Indonesia, which abstained. The resolution imposes restrictions on commerce with Iranian firms connected with Tehran’s nuclear program, including several banks; calls on U.N. member states to exercise “vigilance” in allowing travel by naval vessels carrying cargo shipped by such firms; and restricts travel by several Iranian officials.

An “overwhelming majority” of the world body’s 192 members is “seriously concerned” about the credibility of the council, Mr. Khazaee said. In particular, they oppose its silence on the “abhorrent crimes of the Israeli regime,” which “have resulted in the current holocaust” in Gaza, he told the council.

“There is a lot of sympathy around the world and in the Middle East to the plight of innocent Palestinians, and so in order to divert attention they revert to that and do Israel bashing, which is a popular sport in some places,” the American ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told The New York Sun.

President Sarkozy of France visited Pretoria, South Africa, late last week and spoke by phone with Colonel Muammar Gadhafi over the weekend, as other Western diplomats added to the diplomatic pressure that led South Africa, Libya, and Vietnam to reverse their previous positions on the Iran measure. While those three countries voted reluctantly for the resolution, Jakarta’s decision to abstain was unpopular back home, an Indonesian diplomat said. Most Indonesians would have preferred a vote against the resolution, he said.