"The fighting must stop. The fighting must stop immediately," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday as he opens an emergency Security Council session on the escalation between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip.
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The conflict, which erupted on May 10, have seen Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad fire over 3,200 rockets as Israel, as Israeli airstrikes hammered the coastal enclave, killing over 130 terrorists and eradicating a substantial part of Hamas' infrastructure above and underground, as well as arsenals belonging to Gaza's rulers and other terrorist groups in the Strip.
At the virtual Security Council meeting, Guterres said the UN was actively engaging all parties for an immediate ceasefire.
He lamented casualties to both sides and condemns Hamas rocket fire in addition to Israeli counterstrikes.
He further said he was "greatly concerned" by an IDF strike on a tower that housed media organizations. Israel contends that the building also housed Hamas infrastructure and operatives.
The secretary-general also condemns the crackdown by Israeli security forces on Palestinian protesters in east Jerusalem. where a property dispute has caused unrest that trickled down to mixed Israeli cities, sparking the worst violence seen between Jews and Arab Israelis in decades. Riots also broke out across the West Bank where Israeli security forces' crackdown on rioters also drew Guterres' ire.
Addressing the Security Council on Friday, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan stated that the recent escalation was "completely premeditated by Hamas in order to gain political power" after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canceled what would have been the first Palestinian elections in 15 years.
Hamas "looked for another way to seize power. It escalated tensions in Jerusalem as a pretext to launch this war," Erdan said.
The terrorist group made a similar move in 2006 when, following the Palestinian elections, it seized control of the Gaza Strip from rival Fatah in a military coup, effectively splitting the Palestinian Authority into two political entities.
I just addressed the UNSC, highlighting the events that led up to Hamas' deadly attack against Israel and urging council members to make a choice between surrendering to Hamas' terror or backing Israel's legitimate right to defend itself.
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) May 16, 2021
Addressing the Sheikh Jarrah unrest, Erdan labeled the issue a "property dispute," saying that the Israeli government cannot intervene in court proceedings on the matter.
"Do you really believe that this property dispute is what caused Hamas to launch this large-scale spate of attacks on Israel?" Erdan argued, adding that the terrorist group also instigated violence at the Temple Mount and used the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a weapons stockpile.
He reiterated Israel's commitment and efforts to ensure Muslim worshippers were able to freely pray at the site – the third-most sacred in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
"Israel will continue to uphold the rights of all believers to practice their religion in freedom and security, in the holy city of Jerusalem," he asserted.
"Over the last week, millions of Israeli children, women and men, have been huddling in bomb shelters, while thousands of Hamas rockets landed all around them," Erdan said, warning that if the UN continues to call on both sides to exercise restraint and fail to unequivocally condemn Hamas, it will further "embolden the terrorist group and undermine the Palestinian Authority."
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that Washington was "working tirelessly through diplomatic channels to try and bring an end to this conflict.
"The human toll of this past week has been devastating. Sadly, these numbers are likely to grow," she observed
She further expresses concern over the violence between Arabs and Jews in "mixed communities inside Israel. … We've seen neighbor turn against neighbor," she said.
The US has "made clear that we are prepared to lend our support should the parties seek a ceasefire because we believe that Israelis and Palestinians equally have a right to live in safety."
UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland also addressed the Security Council's session.
He notes that over 100 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives have been killed in the latest round of fighting, according to the IDF. However, "civilian death tolls including children continue to mount."
Wennesland condemned the deaths of Israeli civilians, including a 5-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, calling such killings by Hamas "unjustified."
Gaza terrorist groups' "firing of rockets indiscriminately" from civilian areas "violates international humanitarian law and must cease immediately," he demanded.
He made a similar demand of Israel, saying it must follow international law requiring the use of proportional force and the exercise of maximum restraint.
The special envoy says a "humanitarian emergency is unfolding" in Gaza where the enclave's power plant is barely running after the IDF shuttered the Kerem Shalom goods crossing.
"I join the urgent call of the secretary-general to take immediate and decisive steps to deescalate the situation and prevent the loss of life," he said.
"The death toll is already too high," he lamented.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malki, who also addressed the UNSC accused Israel of "storming" the Al/Aqsa Mosque compound, the "holiest of sites, on the holiest of months, on the holiest of nights," referring to the fact that tensions erupted during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
"Did they think they would bear no consequences?" he lashed out. "Did they expect Palestinians to wait … to coexist with occupation? There are no people on earth that would accept this reality," Malki declared.
"We're not two neighbors living side by side in peace. Israel are armed thieves that entered our house and are oppressing our people … and then they claim the right to security that they deny us," he argued, adding that when world leaders defend Israel's right to self-defense, it "emboldens them [Israel] to kill Palestinians in their sleep."
Lambasting the US over decisions made during the Trump administration, the Palestinian foreign minister said, "Where are they – those who negotiate agreements between countries that are not at war? Where are they? Those who thought this [Middle East agreements] could be [negotiated] at the Palestinians' expense? Where are they?!"
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi tore into the US for twice vetoing Security Council statements criticizing both Israelis and Palestinians for the ongoing violence and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
"China has been working with relevant countries on a security council press statement. Regrettably, due to the obstruction of one country, the Security Council hasn't been able to speak as one voice," Yi said.
"We call upon the US to shoulder its dual responsibilities, take a just position and together with the international community to support the Security Council in easing the situation and building toward a political settlement."
Norway's Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said, "It is now vital that the council speak with one voice to address the situation. Norway stands ready to work with all council members to find suitable language to address the situation, calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire and reconfirming our support for a two-state solution."
Also on Sunday, the representatives of Muslim nations issued a joint demand that Israel halt attacks on Gaza, citing that the Israeli military had no way to prevent the loss of civilian lives.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan called on "the international community to take urgent action to immediately stop military operations."
The meeting of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation also saw Turkey and some others criticize a US-backed push under which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and other Islamic nations normalized ties with Israel.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the violence in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza in phone calls with the Qatari, Egyptian and Saudi foreign ministers, the State Department said on Sunday.
Blinken and Qatar's Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani discussed "efforts to restore calm in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza in light of the tragic loss of civilian life", the State Department said.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two officials discussed "the recent Israeli attacks on worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Compound and the attack on the besieged Gaza Strip."
Al-Thani stressed the "need for urgent action by the international community to stop the repeated brutal Israeli attacks against civilians in Gaza and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," it added.
In his call with Egypt's Sameh Shoukry, Blinken "reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence, which has claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children", the State Department said in another statement.
Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Sunday that Blinken also had a phone call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss the latest developments "in Palestine and in the region."
Mediation efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have so far offered no sign of progress.
A growing group of US senators on Sunday called for a ceasefire. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and Republican Todd Young, the senior members of a Foreign Relations panel, said in a statement, "As a result of Hamas' rocket attacks and Israel's response, both sides must recognize that too many lives have been lost and must not escalate the conflict further."
Twenty-five other Democratic US senators and two independents issued a separate, similar statement urging an immediate ceasefire.
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