Rocket fire this week across the border between Gaza and Israel
shows how close the region is “to the brink of war” a senior United
Nations official warned on Wednesday, urging the international
community to do more to help Israelis and Palestinians return to
the negotiating table.
Briefing the Security Council, Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Special
Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said that the
recent hostilities marked the most serious escalation since the
2014 conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Quoting reports from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Mr.
Mladenov informed the Council that that between 28 and 30 May,
216 different projectiles, rockets and mortar shells, were fired
from Gaza towards Israel. One projectile hit a school playground
and another caused damage to a house.
In response, Israeli jets carried out strikes on 65 Hamas and
Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza and destroyed a two-kilometre
tunnel near the Kerem Shalom crossing, he added, noting that no
casualties or serious injuries were reported as a result of
either strikes, he said.
Since early morning on Wednesday, Mr. Mladenov added that the
situation has “quieted down,” stressing that the calm must be
“preserved at all costs.”
“No one in Gaza can afford another war. No one has the right to
play with the lives of two million people who have lived through
hell in the last decade. No one should live in fear of an
indiscriminate rocket attack,” he said.
“Everyone has a responsibility to do their part to de-escalate
and step back from the brink in the interests of their own people
and the future of their own children.”
Urgent steps needed to prevent situation from deteriorating – UN
envoy
In his briefing, Mr. Mladenov also told the Palestinians in Gaza
that their plight and suffering has been heard, and that work
will be done to ensure that they have a “future beyond mere
survival.”
“A future of freedom and development, a future focused on peace
and prosperity where you are the masters of your own fate. A
future for all Palestinians, under a single, democratic and
legitimate Government, living in a State of Palestine
side-by-side in peace and security with the State of Israel,” he
said, adding that for it to happen, “we need to make sure that
calm persists, that the militant build-up ends and that we deny
those who want to disrupt peace any opportunity to do so.”
Concluding his remarks, the UN Special Coordinator called on the
international community to intensify calls on Israel and
Palestine to undertake concrete steps to advance the goal of a
just and sustainable peace.
“Such actions must encompass the overarching political
objectives: the unification of Gaza and the West Bank under a
single, democratic and legitimate Palestinian Authority; an end
to the occupation; and a resolution of the wider
Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of a two-state solution
and in line with previous agreements and relevant UN
resolutions,” he said.
