New York  - The Israel-Hamas fighting has inflicted a terrifying and psychological impact on the civilian population in Gaza Strip, particularly on children and their parents, the UN said Wednesday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry updated at the same time the number of casualties, as of Tuesday, in the fighting that erupted on December 27 with heavy Israeli airstrikes against targets in Gaza. It said 971 have been killed, of whom 311 are children and 76 women.

New York  - The UN Security Council extended the mandate of the UN mission in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) for 12 months so it can pursue its tasks of securing peace and protect civilians in the region.

The UN mission will be reconfigured to adjust to its tasks and demands by the Chadian government. The mission is designed so it can take over the current 3,300 peacekeepers of the European Union deployed a year ago to the area when tensions arose between the two African nations.

New York  - More than 300 children have been killed and 1,500 others injured by the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza Strip, the UN Children's Fund said Wednesday.

"Each day more children are being hurt, their small bodies wounded and their young lives shattered," UNICEF director Ann Veneman said.

UNICEF said children, who constitute a majority of the 1.5 million-population in Gaza, and their families are trapped by the fighting. Israel and Hamas are now engaged in battle close to centers of residential areas, posing more threats to Palestinian civilians.

Jerusalem, Jan. 14: Israel and the US engaged are engaged in a public spat over events leading to the US abstention in last Thursday''s UN Security Council resolution vote on the Gaza crisis.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the US State Department and White House spokesmen said that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert''s claim that he had essentially gotten US President George W. Bush to twist Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice''s arm and abstain on the measure was simply untrue.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Olmert''s story of what happened in his conversation with Bush was "just 100 percent, totally, completely not true," while White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said: "There are inaccuracies."

London, Jan. 14 : Israel faces the prospect of intervention by international courts amid growing calls that its actions in Gaza are a violation of world humanitarian and criminal law.

The UN general assembly, which is meeting this week to discuss the issue, will consider requesting an advisory opinion from the international court of justice, the Guardian reports.

New York  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday issued his strongest call yet to Israel and Hamas to stop the fighting and abide by a UN Security Council resolution that would ensure that relief supplies reach people in the Gaza Strip.

"All sides must stop now," Ban told a press conference at UN headquarters. He is to leave Tuesday on a visit to seven Middle East nations and Palestinian territories, ending the trip in Kuwait, where he will attend a previously scheduled Arab economic forum.