Security Council condemns attacks on civilians: calls for immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties.

• Position: Israeli shelling kills civilians at a UN post in Lebanon: includes a related article on the meeting of 27 leaders on international terrorism

The situation in the Middle East was seriously aggravated during February and March following a number of attacks and counter-attacks by Hamas and the Hezbullah against Israel and by Israel against the Hezbullah, which resulted in many civilian deaths. A cease-fire was finally reached on 26 April as a result of mediation by the United States, and a modicum of calm returned to the area.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on 7 May, in welcoming the cease-fire agreement, expressed the hope that the restoration of calm in the area would "enhance the prospects for negotiations leading to a comprehensive peace settlement which would preclude further tragic events".

Attacks condemned

The terrorist attacks against civilians in Israel--the bombings in Jerusalem on 25 February and 3 March, in Ashkelon on 25 February, and in Tel Aviv on 4 March--were strongly condemned throughout the international community, including the Security Council and other UN bodies, as well as by the Secretary-General.

"These vile acts had the clear purpose of trying to undermine Middle East peace efforts through such terror", Council President Legwaila J. Legwaila of Botswana stated on 4 March. Council members also "reiterate their support for the peace process and call on the parties to consolidate it and to increase their cooperation in curbing violence and combating such terrorism", he added.

On 25 February, Council President Madeleine K. Albright of the United States had told the press that Council members, in extending their "deepest sympathies to the Government and people of Israel, especially the families of the victims", called upon all parties to "spare no effort to take all possible actions to continue to support, consolidate and advance the peace process".

Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali denounced the 4 March bombing in Tel Aviv--the fourth in Israel in nine days--as a "heinous act of cowardice".

The "civilized world will not, must not, tolerate these acts of terrorism which have no goal except the undermining of the Middle East peace process", he stated. "The senseless carnage must end. I appeal to all those who advocate violence to come to their senses."

In condemning the 3 March terrorist bombing of a bus in Jerusalem, the Secretary-General said he was "shocked and outraged by these appalling acts of terrorism against innocent civilians". He called on "all men and women of good will not to allow terrorism to endanger the precious gains achieved by the Israeli and Palestinian people at an already great cost".

That "upsurge of terrorism" required the world community to "stand together, to speak out, and to unite in action against these despicable acts of violence", Mr. Boutros-Ghali stated on 5 March in Mexico City.

"Nothing can justify those who murder and maim innocent people", he stressed. "No grievance can excuse these cowardly attempts to spread fear and death among a civilian population. Terrorists fear negotiations", the Secretary-General went on. "They reject democratic processes. That is why they step up their attacks whenever progress is being made towards peace".

The international community "must not let terrorism succeed", Mr. Boutros-Ghali urged. "We must join together to prevent their contemptible acts.... The Middle East peace process--and progress towards peace and justice--must be steadfast and must bravely go forward."

"How many more innocent people must die and suffer before we have peace in the region?" the Secretary-General asked on 26 February, at the opening of the 1996 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. "Extremism from any quarter must be curbed", he stressed.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 6 March expressed "grave concern over terrorist acts victimizing certain racial, ethnic and national groups" and condemned the "recent terrorist acts in Israel resulting in the indiscriminate killing of innocent people".

By a statement issued at its forty-eighth session in Geneva, the Committee also declared that there was "no justification whatsoever for such acts" and expressed its "resolute and full support for the Middle East peace process".

On 22 March, another UN body--the Commission on the Status of Women-condemned the terrorist attacks in the Middle East which, it said, sought to "undermine the peace process" and had caused "loss of life ... and injuries among women and their families". In adopting a relevant resolution by a vote of 27 to 2 (Iran, Libya), the Commission also expressed support for the Declaration of the Summit of Peacemakers, held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on 13 March. Fully supporting its decisions, the Secretary-General, who attended the Summit, expressed the readiness of the UN to assist in implementing them in the legal and practical fields.

The European Union, in a declaration issued on 3 March, appealed to everybody to "give no quarter to the criminal network of those terrorist groups that are trying to hinder the peace process by bloody acts that offend the conscience of...