By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, March 1 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council was meeting on Saturday to discuss the escalation of violence in Gaza and consider a Libyan draft resolution that would condemn Israel for killing Palestinian civilians.

Israeli forces killed 61 people in the Gaza Strip, making Saturday the bloodiest day for Palestinians since an uprising against Israeli occupation began in 2000. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting.

The emergency meeting was called by Security Council member Libya on behalf of the Arab League and at the request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the permanent observer of the Arab League, Yahya Mahmassani.

The Libyan draft resolution, circulated to council members and obtained by Reuters, has the council "expressing grave concern ... about the killings of innocent civilians, including the killing of several Palestinian children as a result of recent Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip."

It also calls for "an immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including military attacks" and urges Israel "to immediately open the Gaza Strip's border crossings."

The draft does not mention the months of daily Palestinian rocket fire against Israel, which the Israelis have cited as the reason they closed all the border crossings into Gaza in January, allowing only humanitarian aid into the territory.

Western diplomats on the council had no immediate reaction to the Libyan draft proposal, though they said there was a general feeling that the Security Council should say something about the escalation of violence.

"It doesn't have to be a resolution," one diplomat said. "We could just issue a statement."

The council has been deadlocked on the issue of the closure of the border crossings into the Gaza Strip, partly because Libya and other Arab states refuse to condemn the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June 2007, as the United States has demanded.

The council was expected to hear speeches from the Palestinian U.N. observer and envoys from Israel, several Arab League states and a number of Security Council members. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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