By Awad Rjoub
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - Palestine demanded an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss a "massacre" committed by Israeli forces in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed Palestine's envoy to the United Nations to request an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the repercussions of the bloodshed” committed by Israeli forces in the Nuseirat camp, the Palestine News Agency Wafa reported.
Abbas’ remarks came after heavy Israeli bombardment and sudden incursion into the Nuseirat refugee camp and other areas in the Gaza Strip left at least 210 people dead and more than 400 others injured.
“President Abbas is engaged in intensive communications with relevant Arab and international parties to convene this urgent session of the UN Security Council,” according to the agency.
Abbas emphasized “the urgent need for international intervention to halt the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
He pointed out that “Israel continues to exploit international silence and U.S. support to perpetrate crimes that violate all international legitimacy resolutions and international law.”
According to witnesses, Israeli military vehicles unexpectedly advanced into areas east and northwest of the Nuseirat camp, coinciding with heavy artillery bombardment targeting large areas of the camp.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
More than 36,800 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala