UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (TNS): The United Nation Security Council is set to meet in an emergency session on Tuesday in the wake of one of the Gaza Strip’s deadliest day of violence in recent years.
Kuwait, the only Arab member on the 15-member Council, called for an emergency session to discuss the killing of 55 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces on Monday. Over 2,700 others are said to have sustained injuries.
“We condemned what has happened,” the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United Nations, Mansour Al-Otaibi, told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York. “We will see what the council will do.”
Palestine’s UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour urged the council to condemn the killings.
Speaking to reporters, Mansour called the Israel military response a “savage onslaught” and an “atrocity.”
The 15-member council held an emergency meeting when the protests began in March. Members then urged restraint on both sides but couldn’t agree on any action or joint message.
According to reports, Israeli snipers positioned along the fence targeted the Palestinians who had gathered near the Gaza fence at the climax of six-week demonstrations coinciding with the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
Diplomats said it was not immediately clear what will come out of the discussion.
