By TOVAH LAZAROFFUpdated: NOVEMBER 15, 2018 02:23PLO envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Permanent Observer to the United Nations Riyad Mansour blamed the United States for the UN Security Council’s deadlocked stance on violence in the Gaza Strip.The UNSC met behind closed doors Tuesday night in New York at the request of UNSC members Bolivia and Kuwait to discuss the latest round of Gaza violence, but did not publish any conclusions.“The council has been paralyzed on our issue for the reasons that you all know. There is one country that is refusing to allow our issue to be seriously discussed in the security council,” Mansour told reporters after the meeting.Kuwait Ambassador to the UN Mansour Al-Otaibi said the majority of member states wanted the council to consider sending a mission to the Palestinian territories.“Today many countries supported that” but no decision was made, he said. “There is no horizon of peace so this will come to the council time and time again.”During the meeting, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon held a press conference outside its chambers in which he called on the member states to condemn Hamas.“In a few moments, certain morally bankrupt members of the security council will jump here to blame Israel,” Danon said. “Other members who claim to be objective call for restraint on both sides.”“There is no such thing as both sides. There is Hamas that attacks and fires 450 missiles at civilians, and there is Israel that protects its people,” he continued. “The Security Council must only condemn Hamas today for its aggressive assault on civilians and finally designated as a terrorist organization.”Hamas indiscriminately fired rockets into civilians areas, injuring 55 people, including three critically, Danon said.
“Every time Hamas fired a rocket, families had just 15 seconds to find their loved ones and run to a bomb shelter,” he added.Then he played a recording of a warning siren, which rang out briefly in the UN building. He explained that this is what Israeli civilians hear across the South each time a rocket is fired.Mansour, who spoke to reporters well after Danon had left, blamed the IDF’s botched Gaza operation on Sunday for the violence. The IDF sent an undercover unit into Gaza wearing civilian clothes. Some of the commandos were dressed as women, he said.“We will keep knocking on the door of the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility,” Mansour said, adding that he hoped Egyptian efforts for a ceasefire would be successful.“We expressed our concern,” Otaibi said during the council meeting. “We condemned Israeli attacks on civilians and infrastructure. We expressed concern about the indiscriminate, excessive and disproportionate use of force by Israel.”Bolivia’s Ambassador to the UN Sacha Llorenti attacked US President Donald Trump, stating that his peace proposal was simply putting forward the position of Israeli’s foreign policy.“We believe that there is a need for an honest broker to come up with a negotiated broker,” Llorenti said.
