Condemn Gaza violence: UN to world
SIMMERING: UN envoy warns that the escalation showed ‘how close to the brink of war we are every day’
NEW YORK/GAZA CITY: Violent escalations in Gaza show “how close to the brink of war we are every day,” the UN’S Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov said on Wednesday.
Mladenov called on the international community to unequivocally condemn the firing of more than 100 mortars and rockets into Israel by Palestinian militants overnight into early on Wednesday.
But the flare-up “can’t be divorced from the context of the two months of protests” in which at least 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in clashes in recent weeks, Mladenov said.
US envoy Nikki Haley called it “outrageous” on Wednesday that the UN Security Council did not back a US attempt to condemn Hamas after the rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. The Israeli army retaliated to the rocket launches by bombing dozens of military sites in Gaza.
The US had called an emergency meeting of the Security Council after the most severe exchange of fire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups since the 2014 war.
To not condemn Hamas “and to somehow expect Israel to sit on its hands when it is attacked, is the height of hypocrisy,” Haley said.
The UN Security Council remains deadlocked over action on the escalating violence in Gaza, with the US expected to reject a Kuwaitdrafted attempt to set up a UN protection mission for Palestinians in Gaza.
The German government condemned the Palestinian attacks on Wednesday, referring to them as “completely unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
The European Union has also condemned the Palestinian fire. “Indiscriminate attacks against civilians are completely unacceptable under any circumstances,” EU spokesperson Maja Kocijancic said.
Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip, said on Wednesday that it has reached a ceasefire with Israel. However, there has been no confirmation of any ceasefire from Israel. But Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the security cabinet, denied on Wednesday that there is a ceasefire or informal understanding.