UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has condemned a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip which killed a civilian in Israel on Thursday, on the eve of the Middle East Quartet meeting in Moscow, Ban's spokesperson has said in a statement.
Local media said the Palestinian rocket struck on Thursday a farm just north of Gaza, killing a 30-year-old Thai worker. The attack occurred on the same day as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton visited Gaza, the first such trip by a senior official in over a year.
"All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law," the statement said.
Ban Ki-Moon is currently in Moscow, where he will take part in the Quartet meeting on Friday. Baroness Ashton, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will also attend the meeting to be hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Russia, the U.S., the UN and the European Union are the four mediators in the Middle East peace process.
The attack from Gaza comes after Israel's recent announcement that it would build 1,600 houses for Jewish families in the disputed area of east Jerusalem. The move, which poses a threat to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, was condemned by the Middle East Quartet.
The issue is expected to be discussed during the Quartet meeting on Friday, along with other regional problems.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks came to a halt in December 2008, when Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip in a bid to put an end to the firing of homemade rockets at southern Israel by Palestinian militants based in the enclave. The conflict left 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
Settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, has been the main obstacle to reviving peace negotiations.
The Palestinians, who had recently agreed to hold U.N.-backed indirect talks with Israel, said they would pull out of negotiations unless Israeli new building plans were abandoned.
UNITED NATIONS, March 19 (RIA Novosti)
