US calls for emergency meeting of UN Security Council over rockets fired from Gaza
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to condemn rocket and mortar attacks against Israel by terrorists in Gaza.
(JNS) United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to condemn rocket and mortar attacks against Israel by terrorists in Gaza.
The U.S. circulated a draft statement asking the council to condemn “in the strongest terms the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian militants in Gaza” against Israel.
“The Security Council should be outraged and respond to this latest bout of violence directed at innocent Israeli civilians, and the Palestinian leadership needs to be held accountable for what they’re allowing to happen in Gaza,” she said, noting that the mortars are being fired at “civilian infrastructure, including a kindergarten.”
Just this month, the U.N. Security Council convened an emergency meeting to condemn Israel for using “excessive force” in fighting tens of thousands of Gazans who attacked the border with Israel.
The U.S. blocked the council from issuing an official statement censuring Israel for the deaths of 102 people who took part in the attacks, most of whom were identified as members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon called on Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council to “unequivocally condemn Hamas and hold it responsible for the last day’s terror incidents,” adding that Israel had been trying to draw attention to Hamas incitement in the last several weeks, but that the latest attacks “leave no doubt as to the true intentions of those who incited, encouraged and even paid for those demonstrations.”
The European Union said, “The rocket and mortar fire by Palestinian militants from Gaza towards Israel must stop immediately.” British Foreign Secretary Alistair Burt tweeted his condemnation of attacks against Israel, calling the rocket fire “indiscriminate attacks against civilians.”
Canada issued a statement calling the Palestinian rocket attacks “unacceptable,” while the Czech Foreign Ministry stated that it “fully supports Israeli right for security.”