Sa’eb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator, told the Voice of Palestine Radio that Abbas instructed Ambassador Riyad Mansour of Palestine Observer Mission to the United Nations to call for an urgent session of the UNSC to discuss the air strikes on Gaza Strip that killed 15 residents and wounded dozens since Thursday.
Erekat said that the Arab League will hold an urgent meeting on Sunday, upon request from the Palestinian Authority, also to discuss the Israeli strikes.
“The ongoing strikes on Gaza Strip are blatant violation of international laws and norms and a collective punishment of the people of Gaza,” Erekat said.
He added that “the international community needs to move swiftly to provide the Palestinian people with protection. The world cannot stay silent anymore.”
According to the Palestinian negotiator, the Israel’s preplanned attacks were meant to escape the internal Israeli social crisis as well as to undermine the Palestinian bid to get a statehood recognition from the United Nations in September.
Israel launched the attacks on Gaza shortly after accusing Palestinian fighters of taking part in deadly shootings and blasts in the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel where eight Israelis were killed and dozens more wounded.
Palestinian groups, including Hamas, denied any involvement in the attacks.
Meanwhile, the hawkish Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the attacks.
“The events of recent days prove that the Palestinian rhetoric professing they have abandoned terror in favor on diplomacy is as removed from reality as Ramallah is from the UN building in New York City", Liebermann said.
“The PA, which constantly glorifies terror and incites against Israel, bears full responsibility for the murderous attack on Israelis Thursday”, Liebermann, of the Israel Beiteinu party, said.
