UN to hold emergency meet on Palestine crisis

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations (UN) Security Council will hold a virtual public meeting on Sunday to address the soaring violence between Israelis and the Palestinians, diplomats said on Thursday (Friday in Manila).

The United States, which had blocked an originally scheduled Friday session and proposed a meeting early next week, agreed to move the session — requested by Tunisia, Norway and China — to Sunday, the same sources said.

The United States said earlier Thursday it wanted to give time for diplomacy.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asked about the scrapping of Friday’s session, had said the United States was not blocking a meeting but wanted to hold it later. “We are open to and supportive of an open discussion at the United Nations,” Blinken told reporters in Washington.

“I think we’re looking at early next week. This, I hope, will give some time for the diplomacy to have some effect,” he said, before the meeting was set for Sunday.

The United States, Israel’s key ally, has defended the Jewish state’s deadly offensive in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

But President Joe Biden’s administration has also voiced alarm over civilian casualties and earlier pushed Israel to hold off on evictions of Palestinians in Jerusalem, the immediate trigger for the flare-up.

Blinken spoke on Wednesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, and a senior State Department official, Hady Amr, was en route on Thursday to the region.

The United States is seeking “an end to the violence, which continues to claim the lives of innocent children, women and men,” Blinken said. “We’ve been very clear that rocket attacks must cease,” he said.

Security Council sessions, held by videoconference due to the pandemic, require support of all 15 members. Early Friday, Israel bombarded Gaza with artillery and air strikes as part of the ongoing operation against Hamas, the military said.

“Israeli planes and troops on the ground are carrying out an attack in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli army said in a brief message, although it later clarified there were no boots on the ground.