UN Mideast envoy condemns Palestinian terror attacks, Israeli settlements

The UN envoy to the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, condemns last week’s West Bank terror attack in Ofra in which a pregnant woman was seriously injured and her baby died, as well as Hamas’s rocket launches at Israeli cities.

“There is no justification for terror and I call on all to condemn it,” he tells the UN Security Council. “The indiscriminate launching of rockets against Israeli towns and villages violates international law, placing civilians under imminent threat.”

Mladenov also criticizes Israel for apparently shooting a Palestinian man in the West Bank while he was walking away, and for allegedly killing a 4-year-old boy on the Gaza border.

The indiscriminate launching of rockets against #Israeli towns and villages violates international law, placing civilians under imminent threat. @UNSCO_MEPP #UNSC pic.twitter.com/iOSuUkSWIV

— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) December 18, 2018

The envoy says he “acknowledges” Israeli efforts to prevent settler violence against Palestinian civilians, and says Hamas has an “obligation to protect children from violence and ensure that they are never put in harm’s way.”

He slams Israeli settlements, saying they are “illegal under international law, undermine hope among the population, trust between the parties, and the two-state solution itself.”

Mladenov particularly notes the impending demolition of the Bedouin hamlet Khan al-Ahmar deemed illegal by Israel, saying such a move “could amount to a serious violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.”