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Palestine, Israel Unhappy With UN’s Statement on Gaza - Ambassadors

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Palestine has expressed its disenchantment over the United Nations Security Council’s inability to adopt a resolution ending fire in the Gaza Strip, Riyad Mansour, Palestine's UN permanent observer said following an emergency special session on the situation on the Middle East.

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 (RIA Novosti) - Palestine has expressed its disenchantment over the United Nations Security Council’s inability to adopt a resolution ending fire in the Gaza Strip, Riyad Mansour, Palestine's UN permanent observer said following an emergency special session on the situation on the Middle East.

“We will continue knocking at the door of the Security Council so that the Security Council to show its responsibility. We will not accept that the Security Council to continue driving their feet and to act as if this is a small issue,” Mansour said, adding that he expected the ceasefire with Israel to last.

Sunday night, the UN Security Council met for an extraordinary session to discuss the armed conflict in Gaza. The statement of Rwanda's UN ambassador and the Council’s president for July, issued after the meeting called for “an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire, allowing for the delivery of urgently needed assistance, and they urged all parties to accept and fully implement the humanitarian ceasefire into the Eid period and beyond.”

The Security Council also called for “full respect of international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilian population, and reiterates the need to take appropriate steps to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians and their protection.”

The statement has become Security Council’s first official document regarding the Palestine-Israeli conflict since 2009. However, the Council did not clarify the fate of a draft resolution proposed by Jordan last week calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestine in the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the region dominated by Hamas.

“We heard the presidential statement right now where the Security Council miraculously managed not to mention Hamas, or Israel's right to defend our citizens,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor said after the session.

The situation in the Gaza Strip spun out of control over the past weekend, as fighting resumed between Palestine’s rebels from the Hamas movement and Israel after what seemed to be a promising 12-hour ceasefire on Saturday.

Israel decided late Saturday to extend the ceasefire until the end of Sunday at the UN's request. The truce was called off, however, after the Palestinian militants refused to maintain the truce demanding withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and fired rockets at Israel.

Hamas was reported to have agreed to a new 24-hour ceasefire with the Israeli Army until 2:00 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT) on Monday, but Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN hours later that Hamas violated the ceasefire.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have died in the ongoing military operation launched by Israel early July against Hamas and its allied militant groups. According to recent estimates, the Israeli side has lost more than 40 soldiers and three civilians.

Israel launched its Operation Protective Edge aiming to put an end to rocket fire from Gaza and to undermine the Hamas movement, which controls the region, on July 8. On July 17, the Israeli Army switched to a ground assault, largely aimed at locating and destroying underground tunnels dug by militants to sneak into Israel and transport weapons.

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