Kuwait urges international force on Gaza border

Kuwait, the only Arab nation with a current seat on the United Nations Security Council, circulated a draft resolution Thursday night on “providing international protection to the Palestinian people,” following recent violent clashes on the Gaza border in which dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. Israel described the move as “cynicism” and “shameful.”

Kuwaiti ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi circulated the draft which called for the establishment of an international force stationed on the Gaza border with Israel.

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour said on Tuesday he would begin negotiations to try to get the resolution adopted.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon condemned the proposed resolution.

“The cynicism and attempts to distort reality have reached a new low,” he said in a statement. “Israel will continue to defend its sovereignty and the security of its citizens against the terror and murderous violence of Hamas.”

Israel expects the United States to veto the resolution as it did on Monday when it blocked the adoption of a UN statement that would have called for an independent probe into the situation along the Gaza border.

Danon stressed, “This shameful draft resolution is a proposal to support Hamas’s war crimes against Israel and the residents of Gaza who are being sent to die for the sake of preserving Hamas’s rule.”

US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday condemned Hamas provocation and said ally Israel had acted with restraint.

“No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has,” Haley told the council. “In fact the records of several countries here today suggest they would be much less restrained.”

To suggest that the violence had anything to do with the relocation of the US embassy was a smoke screen, she said.

“The Hamas terrorist organization has been inciting violence for years, long before the United States decided to move our embassy,” she said. “Make no mistake, Hamas is pleased with the results from yesterday,” she added.

“The United States deplores the loss of human life,” she said.

Arab countries are expected to put forward a resolution Friday to the UN Human Rights Council, an inter-governmental body of UN member states, backing an investigation into the border clashes, in which 62 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

Jerusalem has blamed the Hamas terror group that rules the Strip for the violence, saying it co-opted the protests and has used them as cover to attempt border infiltrations and attacks on Israelis. On Wednesday, a Hamas official said 50 of the 62 killed on Monday and Tuesday were members of the group.