Hawzah News Agency (New York, US) - Addressing his fellow Palestinians, Riyad Mansour said during a press conference in New York on Friday that despite being in initial stages, he had managed to draw support for such a resolution from the “majority of members” in the Security Council.
“And, we are determined to have a larger support in the General Assembly, when it moves to the General Assembly soon. And we will not relent until protection to be provided in the path of ending occupation,” he added.
AFP Quoted a diplomatic source as saying that an emergency meeting had been pushed by the Organization of Islamic States and the Arab League.
The General Assembly’s president, Miroslav Lajcak, said the meeting will be held on June 13 to vote on a resolution to condemn Israel.
"We will work next week to get the maximum number of votes," said a diplomat from a country that supported the move.
Unlike those passed by the Security Council, the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly are non-binding.
The developments came hours after Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinian demonstrators protesting at a rally marking the International Quds Day along the border between the blockaded sliver and the occupied territories. More than 600 others were also wounded along the flashpoint border either by Israeli fire or as a result of inhaling tear gas.
It was the 11th Friday in a row where thousands of Palestinians protested at the border fence since the “Great March of Return” began in the Gaza Strip on March 30. More than 120 Palestinian protesters have been killed and thousands more injured by Israeli forces, mainly sharpshooters.
“What happened today on the ground of killing more Palestinian civilians, injuring more of them, is a testament to the urgency of needing the protection to be provided. And I said we will not relent in our quest to try to find ways to provide protection for the civilian population, because it is our duty,” Mansour added.
Earlier this month, the US vetoed a Kuwait-drafted resolution asking UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to report on ways to protect Palestinian civilians, including an “international protection mechanism.”
The Israeli military has come under intense international criticism for allowing its troops to open fire on unarmed demonstrators in the besieged enclave.
The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israel has launched several wars on the Palestinian coastal sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014. The military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
The Israeli regime denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs with proper wages as well as adequate healthcare and education.
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