UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Gaza conflict

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-7-28 11:05:12

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the ongoing Gaza conflict, at midnight on Sunday, the council president said.

"The president of the Security Council wishes to inform the members of the Council that a public meeting in connection with the agenda item 'The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question' will be convened tonight at 12:00 a.m. (0400 GMT Monday)," said the council president.

Rwanda, one of the 10 non-permanent council members, holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation UN body.

The emergency meeting comes shortly after a reported collapse of humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged, "in the strongest terms," both the Israelis and Palestinians to extend a humanitarian ceasefire for an additional 24 hours.

Since Israel launched a large-scale operation on Gaza on July 8, 1,031 Palestinians and 43 Israelis have been killed and more than 6,000 Palestinians injured.

Efforts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants had so far failed, where Hamas movement conditions any truce with ending seven years of an Israeli blockade imposed on the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Posted in: Mid-East

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