 |
| Palestine's Permanent Observer to UN, Riyad Mansour, briefing reporters at United Nations HQ in New York [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
New York: Palestine's Observer to UN, Riyad Mansour condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the latest Israel's
airstrikes in the Gaza strip, which killed Ahmed al-Jabari, a top Hamas
military commander.
Al-Jabari, was 52 years-old and had reportedly been the
leader of Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
Addressing a press conference at United Nations headquarters in New York, Mansour said the current situation was "explosive"
and added that "there is no justification whatsoever for assassinating any
Palestinian by Israel, the occupying power."
The Palestinian diplomat said "the assassination was
later accompanied by attacks from the sea against the Gaza Strip from Israel
naval units" and said Israel is now "mobilizing a large number of
forces, ground forces, with the possibility of moving in the Gaza Strip."
However, Israel has justified its action.
While briefing reporters, Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor said Israel has "shown
for a very long time a lot of restraint in our response, but today we made it a
point that someone who is a mass murderer, who has in the past and also was
planning in the future to kill innocent Israeli civilians, would not continue
to do that."
He indicated that "for weeks and months" he had
been "calling the Security Council and the international community to
stand up and condemn the indiscriminate rocket fire against Israel and Israeli
civilians day in and day out."
According to media reports, at least 20 targets were hit
inside Gaza by Israeli forces, killing at least nine people and injuring
scores. -UNifeed