Israel demands UN condemn Gaza rocket fire

Israel called on the United Nations to categorically denounce rockets fired by terrorists in Gaza at the country’s southern cities and civilian population and said that the typical UN response calling for both sides to stay calm was inadequate.

“Unequivocally condemn the rocket fire,” Israeli envoy to the UN Ron Proser urged in a letter this week to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council. “The usual statements calling for mutual restraint are not enough. This is not a matter of two sides, but one side and one side only that continues to repeatedly to impose terror on innocent civilians.”

Prosor went on to decry the notion that the exchange of fire between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza was morally balanced.

“There is no place to equate between a terror group that makes civilians its target and a state that wants to protect its residents,” the envoy wrote in the missive, sent Monday after a barrage of rockets from the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave slammed into southern Israel. The attack is widely believed to have been carried out by Islamic Jihad in violation of Hamas instructions to refrain from such activity.

Israel responded by striking several weapons storage sites in Gaza.

“After seven years it’s about time that the Security Council unanimously condemned these attacks, which are not based on any provocation from Israel,” Prosor wrote. “It will be a small but significant step that may contribute to peace in the Middle East.”

In April Prosor made a similar request of the United Nations following a rocket and mortar attack on southern Israel.