US, France condemn Hamas rocket fire ahead of Security Council meeting

The US and France condemned Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel on Tuesday night, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss latest flare-up of cross-border violence.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the rocket, missile and mortar attacks that are taking place from Gaza into Israel,” US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at a briefing, according to Reuters.

“We call for the sustained halt of those attacks. We stand with Israel as Israel defends itself against these attacks. It is simply unacceptable to target civilians.”

It was the second US condemnation of Hamas in so many days.

Meanwhile French President Emmanuel Macron “strongly condemned the numerous rockets fired by Hamas” on Israel and called on the parties “to avoid escalation and a new cycle of deadly violence,” in a telephone interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to his office.

The French president also “expressed his solidarity with the affected populations.”

Netanyahu was to have met with Macron Monday at the Elysee Palace after participating Sunday in the celebrations of the centenary of the end of World War I. But Netanyahu had to depart early because of the situation in Gaza.

The UN Security Council will meet behind closed doors later Tuesday to discuss the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the worst flareup since the 2014 war.

At the request of the Palestinian UN delegation, Kuwait, which represents Arab countries at the council, and Bolivia asked for the emergency meeting during which council members will hear a briefing from a UN official on the crisis, diplomats said.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said in response that Israel “will not accept a call for both sides to exercise restraint. There is one side that attacks and fires 400 missiles at civilian populations, and there is another side that protects its citizens.”

“Every member of the Security Council should ask themselves how they would respond after a barrage of missiles on their country,” Danon added.

Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip announced that Egypt brokered a ceasefire agreement between them and Israel on Tuesday evening, after over 460 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel over the course of 25 hours.

A senior Israeli diplomatic official appeared to confirm the reported armistice. First reports said the decision to accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terror groups in Gaza was taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Tuesday’s seven-hour meeting of the security cabinet without being put to a vote. Four ministers quickly said they opposed it.

“Israel maintains its right to act. Requests from Hamas for a ceasefire came through four different mediators. Israel responded that the events on the ground will decide [if a ceasefire will go into effect],” the Israeli official said, on condition of anonymity.

According to the military, over 460 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel over the course of 25 hours on Monday and Tuesday.

The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted over 100 of them. Most of the rest landed in open fields, but dozens landed inside Israeli cities and towns, killing one person, injuring dozens more, and causing significant property damage.

In response to the rocket and mortar attacks, the Israeli military says it targeted approximately 160 sites in the Gaza Strip connected to the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups, including four facilities that the army designated as “key strategic assets.”

According to the IDF, the barrage of more than 460 rockets and mortars lobbed at southern Israel began shortly after 4:30 p.m. Monday when Palestinian terrorists fired a Kornet anti-tank guided missile at a bus near the border, severely injuring an Israeli soldier on board.

The anti-tank missile attack occurred less than a day after an IDF special operations officer was killed in an operation in Gaza gone awry that also killed seven Palestinian gunmen.

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.