UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting, to discuss Israel-Gaza tensions

Jerusalem: The United Nations Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the situation in Gaza as widely-expected Palestinian rocket fire failed to materialize on Tuesday night.

Palestinian terror groups in Gaza did not respond to Israeli air strikes on Tuesday, killing three senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders. Later on Tuesday, the Israeli Defence forces killed two Islamic Jihad terrorists taking anti-tank missiles to a launch site near Khan Yunis. Islamic Jihad has vowed to avenge the deaths and a tense quiet prevailed in the morning. The Security Council meeting was called for China, France and the United Arab Emirates.

In a letter to UN officials, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wrote that ‘Israel acted in a precise and limited manner against senior military officials in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who were directly responsible for facilitating attacks and launching rockets and missiles against Israelis, in order to protect Israel’s citizens and thwart the planned attacks’. After stressing that Israel targeted facilities for producing and storing weapons and other military sites, the letter added that Islamic Jihad ‘uses the citizens of the Gaza Strip as human shields – they hide their rockets among the civilian population, use private houses as situation rooms and fire from dense urban areas’.

The strikes on the Islamic Jihad leaders come against the backdrop of a rocket barrage fired by the terror group following the death of Khader Adnan on May 2. The imprisoned Adnan, a senior Islamic Jihad figure, died after an 86-day hunger strike. The terror group had threatened throughout Adnan’s hunger strike that it would hold Israel responsible for its member’s death. Israeli residents living within 40 km (25 miles) of Gaza have been instructed to remain near shelters. Residents were also ordered not to hold outdoor gatherings. Amid concerns about sniper and anti-tank fire from Gaza, the military closed access to roads in the immediate vicinity of the strip.