Rabat – The UN Security Council will convene a closed-door emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Israel’s latest escalation in the Gaza Strip.
The UAE requested the meeting, emphasizing the need to restore calm in the region.
Afra Mahash al-Hameli, the UAE Foreign Ministry’s strategic communications director, said in a statement that her country “expresses its deep concern over the current escalation and calls for exercising maximum restraint to prevent being drawn into new levels of violence and instability.”
The council’s meeting will come amid Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. The death toll of the attacks, which also caused considerable material damage, reached 32 as of today. Meanwhile, over 260 have so far sustained injuries in what Israeli says will be a week-long operation.
In reacting to the latest developments in the region, many countries, including Morocco, have called for restraint and condemned Israel’s offensive.
On Saturday, Morocco expressed its concerns over the “deteriorating situation,” emphasizing the need to avoid further tensions.
The Palestinian Authority strongly condmend the attacks and called on the international community, especially the US, to intervene.
The UN has also expressed concerns about the serious escalation, saying that the “humanitarian situation in Gaza is already dire and can only worsen with this most recent escalation.”
Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Palestinian territories, said: “The hostilities must stop to avoid more deaths and injuries of civilians in Gaza and Israel. The principles of international humanitarian law including those of distinction, precaution and proportionality must be respected by all parties.”
Hastings concluded her statement by renewing the UN’s call on all parties to halt escalation and violence to avoid “destructive ramifications particularly for civilians
