• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

UN Security Council Debates Israel's Gaza Offensive

By Steve Herman
United Nations
30 June 2006

The U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency debate on Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. VOA's Peter Heinlein reports, Palestinians are asking the Council to demand a halt to the Israeli military action.

Security Council member Qatar asked for the emergency meeting Friday on behalf of the Palestinian observer mission. Palestinian mission chief Riyad Mansour is calling on the Council to act quickly against what he called a huge crime against humanity that is endangering 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"The Strip is completely besieged, nobody is in, nobody is out, and bombarded from the sea by artillery and from the skies," he said. "The situation is extremely grave, and there is a lack of food, lack of medicine, of course, there is no electricity, water pipes [are] being damaged, there is a serious shortage of water."

Mansour said he was hopeful the Security Council would "rise up to the occasion," and adopt a resolution demanding a halt to Israeli military operations.

"This is aggression and this is a threat to the lives of civilians and international law," he said. "The Geneva Convention calls for a behavior from occupying power, proper legal behavior, and Israel is not acting accordingly."

Israel's ambassador to Washington, Daniel Ayalon, told VOA's Persian Service Friday that Palestinians have launched more than 800 rockets into Israel. He said Israel has been careful noto harm civilians.

"And if they were so concerned, if the Palestinian authority, leaders, were so concerned about the well-being and security of their citizens, they would have done the first most important thing, and stopped the aggression and the violence, stopped the terror, and, then, I think, we could have entered a meaningful political dialogue," he said.

The Council agreed to hold the debate, but Washington's U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, said he saw no point in discussing the matter, since there is nothing concrete the council can do.

"Whenever the Security Council considers an issue, is to mind the Hippocratic oath provision, 'do no harm,' and in these circumstances, you have to see, if there's anything concrete the Security Council can do, rather than just blowing off steam," he said. "And, it's with that basis in mind, I said that considering a resolution today would be inadvisable."

The United States has previously vetoed Security Council resolutions on Israel, arguing that they were not balanced. It was not immediately clear whether any formal draft resolution would be presented for Council action this time.