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GAZA CITY (CNN) — With more than 1,000 people killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York early Monday to push for “an immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.”
The halt in violence would allow for the delivery of urgently needed assistance, the 15-nation council said.
But as the past week has shown, cease-fires between the dueling sides are short-lived.
At its midnight meeting, the Security Council also proclaimed its support for “a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders as envisioned in Security Council resolution 1850 (2008).”
But the statement did not appease the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, who wanted the Security Council to pass a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
“They should have adopted a resolution (a) long time ago to condemn this aggression and to call for this aggression to be stopped immediately to provide the Palestinian people with protection and to lift the siege against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Palestinian ambassador Riyah Mansour said.
Jordan has circulated a draft resolution that called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces, but that resolution never passed.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations was also unimpressed by the Security Council’s statement.
Ron Prosor said the statement “miraculously managed not to mention Hamas, or rockets, or Israel’s right to defend its citizens.”
“The equation is simple –when it is quiet in Israel, it will be quiet in Gaza.”
