The Trump administration in the US expressed regret on Friday at the death and wounding of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the course of confrontations between Palestinian demonstrators and IDF troops along the border with Israel. According to Hamas, 16 Palestinians were killed in the clashes and more than 1,400 injured. 758 of the injured were wounded by live fire and the remainder by rubber bullets and from breathing tear gas, Hamas says.
“We are deeply saddened by loss of life in Gaza today. We urge those involved to take steps to lower tensions. The international community is focused on taking steps to improve the lives of the Palestinians and is working on a plan for peace. Violence furthers neither of those goals,” US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert wrote on Twitter.
At the request of Kuwait, the UN Security Council was convened on Friday for an emergency session on the violent clashes along the Israel-Gaza border. At the end of the session, which was conducted behind closed doors, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation of the deaths of the Palestinian demonstrators.
In a statement released before the Security Council meeting, Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said that Hamas deliberately put the lives of innocent civilians in danger, and called on the members of the Security Council not to fall victim to the lies of a terrorist organization.
"Today we saw yet another example of Hamas exploiting civilians as they sent children to the fence with Israel, intentionally endangering their lives. The international community must not be deceived by Hamas’s attempts to conceal their crimes,” Danon said.
The Security Council was convened on Passover Eve despite a request from Israel and the US to postpone the session until after the festival, and therefore no Israel representative spoke in the discussion. "While Jews around the world gathered with their family at the Seder table to celebrate the Passover holiday, the Palestinians sunk to a new deceitful low so that they could use the UN to spread lies about Israel. This shameful exploitation of our holiday will not succeed in stopping us from speaking the truth about the Hamas terror-gatherings that aim to destabilize the region,” Danon's statement said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 1, 2018
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