In letter to Ban Ki-moon, Israeli ambassador to UN expresses "grave concern" over recent escalation in rocket attacks, says int'l law violated.
By JORDANA HORN, JPOST CORRESPONDENTIsraeli Ambassador to the UN Meron Reuben 311(photo credit: Shahar Azran)
NEW YORK – Ambassador to the UN Meron Reuben has written a letter to the Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, expressing “grave concern” over the recent escalation in projectile attacks by Palestinians and stating that Israel holds Hamas “fully responsible.”Since April 7, Reuben’s letter reads, terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired 131 projectiles – 12 Grad missiles, 70 Kassam rockets and 49 mortars – at communities in southern Israel.“These continuous attacks mark an escalation in projectile fire emanating from the Gaza Strip that has not been witnessed since the end of Operation Cast Lead in 2009,” Reuben’s letter reads, adding that children in southern Israel were kept home from school for the third time in a month so they remain near bomb shelters.“Attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip constitute a clear violation of international law and must be addressed with the utmost seriousness,” Reuben writes, referencing six previous letters sent on the topic.The attacks “provide another clear example of the dangerous and destabilizing consequences of the continued illegal smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip,” the new letter also notes.“Israel expects the Security Council, the secretary-general, and the international community to condemn all of these attacks in very clear terms and send a firm message to these terrorists and their patrons, which seek to escalate conflict in our region,” the letter states.“The Security Council and the international community must also devote much more attention to preventing the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip,” Reuben writes. The issue “does not receive the appropriate attention that it deserves.”
