UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Gaza violence

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency closed door meeting on Monday to discuss the latest escalation between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour says in a statement.

The meeting was requested by the UAE — a UNSC member — along with China, France, Ireland and Norway, UAE Foreign Ministry strategic communications director Afra Mahash al-Hameli says in a statement.

“The United Arab Emirates has emphasized the need to restore calm to the Gaza Strip, reduce escalation, and preserve civilian lives,” she says, adding that Abu Dhabi “expresses its deep concern over the current escalation and calls for exercising maximum restraint, to prevent being drawn into new levels of violence and instability.”

During the Monday meeting, Security Council members will discuss “the current developments and ways to support international efforts to achieve a comprehensive and just peace,” the senior Emirati official says.

The decision to hold a meeting comes hours after the Palestinian mission to the UN reached out to UNSC members calling on them to “assume [their] responsibilities to stop the Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and provide international protection to the Palestinian people,” Mansour’s office says in a statement.