US calls for emergency Security Council meeting on attacks against Israel from Gaza
A picture taken from Gaza City on May 29, 2018, shows smoke billowing in the background following an Israeli air strike on the Palestinian coastal enclave.
The United States has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the latest attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, the US mission to the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The meeting is expected to take place on Wednesday afternoon, said the US mission in a press release.
"The recent attacks out of Gaza are the largest we have seen since 2014. Mortars fired by Palestinian militants hit civilian infrastructure, including a kindergarten," the press release quoted US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley as saying.
"The Security Council should be outraged and respond to this latest bout of violence directed at innocent Israeli civilians, and the Palestinian leadership needs to be held accountable for what they're allowing to happen in Gaza," said Haley.
UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, also blamed the attacks on Tuesday.
"It is UNACCEPTABLE to indiscriminately fire at civilian communities! I am deeply concerned by today's rockets fired by #Palestinian militants towards Southern #Israel, one of which hit close to a kindergarten. Such actions undermine efforts to improve the situation in #Gaza," Mladenov tweeted.
Later on Tuesday, Israel reported that four of its people were injured sequently, including one civilian.
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to launch a military response, Israeli fighter jets and aircraft struck at least 35 sites in Gaza on the same day.
The violence followed a serious escalation in the area of the fence separating Gaza and Israel over the past months. Israeli forces have killed at least 121 Palestinians in Gaza since weekly demonstrations started on March 30.
