NEW YORK, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - After an urgent meeting on Gaza on Sunday evening, the UN Security Council issued elements to the press which “called for an immediate cessation of hostilities based on a return to the November 2012 ceasefire agreement.”
Palestinian Observer to the UN Riyad Mansour said the State of Palestine wanted a resolution, but that these elements to the press would be a test for Israel.
The elements, read out by the President of the Security Council for July Eugene-Richard Gasana of Rwanda, “expressed serious concern at the escalation of violence in the situation related to Gaza and called for respect of International Humanitarian Law, including protection of civilians.”
Referring to the temporary five-hour ceasefire brokered by the UN, the Security Council's elements to the press “emphasize the need to improve the humanitarian situation, including through humanitarian pauses and expressed serious concern about the growing number of casualties.”
The Security Council's elements concluded that the Council's members “called for an immediate cessation of hostilities based on a return to the November 2012 ceasefire agreement and welcomed the efforts of Egypt to broker a ceasefire, as well as those of the Secretary-General."
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in Doha, Qatar on the first leg of his trip to the region seeking a ceasefire.
Israel started its Operation Protective Edge on July 8 targeting the Hamas movement controlling the region and its allied groups of Palestinian rebels. Ten days later, the Israeli military switched to a ground offensive aimed at destroying underground tunnels dug by rebels to secretly enter the Israeli territory.
Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip killed more than 100 Palestinians on Sunday, the bloodiest day since the fighting broke out two weeks ago.
