Around 30 people are reported to have been killed in an incident which happened in Zeitoun, south of Gaza city, where Red Cross workers later found four small children next to the corpses of their mothers.  The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited reports of "extensive destruction and many deaths" in the area. It said: "According to several testimonies, on J More..anuary 4 Israeli foot soldiers evacuated approximately 110 Palestinians into a single residence house in Zeitoun (half of whom were children) warning them to stay indoors. Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately 30." The OCHA described it as "one of the gravest incidents" since the start of the Gaza conflict on December 27. UN Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs John Holmes on Wednesday cited the deaths in Zeitoun as an example of the "dreadful incidents that are coming to our notice" in Gaza. On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross accused the Israeli military of "unacceptable" delays in allowing rescue workers to reach homes in Zeitoun hit by shelling. In a strongly-worded statement it said: "The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded." In New York, the US abstained from a UN Security Council vote on the Middle East crisis, but says it backs the text of the resolution which also calls for a full withdrawal by Israel. The vote followed days of intense haggling with foreign ministers from Arab nations pressing France, Britain and the US to go along with a resolution rather than a more diluted president’s statement. The fighting has now killed more than 750 Palestinians and at least 14 Israelis.