RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the latest Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, his spokesman said.
"President Abbas has officially requested that the Security Council convene an urgent meeting to discuss the Israeli aggressions in Gaza," Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Rudeina said Abbas had already discussed the ongoing clashes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
"Abbas will also be holding discussions with Arab representatives at the United Nations in order to make an emergency meeting," he said.
"They will study the dangerous situation in Gaza and the Israeli massacres against the Palestinian people, especially the innocent children," he added.
The requests come after a fierce Israeli incursion into northern Gaza left nearly 50 Palestinians dead, making it one of the deadliest Israeli military operations since the eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Abbas had earlier called for "international protection for the Palestinian people" while his office said he had contacted several world leaders to press for an end to the Israeli assault.
"It is unthinkable that Israel's reaction to Palestinian rocket attacks -- which we condemn -- can be so terrible and frightening," Abbas said, adding that the attacks were targeting "innocent women, children and old people."
More than a dozen civilians were killed in the operation including at least seven women, Palestinian medics said.
Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, earlier "called for an immediate cessation of rocket fire at Israeli civilians," his spokesman Richard Miron told AFP.
He also "reminded the IDF (Israeli army) that it must comply with international humanitarian law and not endanger civilians," Miron said.
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