With his posting soon to expire, Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, left the U.N. Security Council chamber for what might be the final time on Tuesday.
Erdan decamped mid-session after Amar Bendjama, the Algerian ambassador, chided him over the Gaza death toll, which Hamas compiles without differentiating between civilians and terrorists killed.
The Security Council held an emergency session to discuss an Israeli airstrike on Saturday on a terror compound, which the Israel Defense Forces says was embedded in a school-turned-shelter and mosque complex in Gaza. Israel identified 31 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists that it killed in what it called a precise strike, based on aerial surveillance and intelligence.
Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, claims that more than 100 people were killed in the strike. Israel says that is impossible based on its intelligence.
As he has in many prior sessions, Erdan lashed out at the U.N. body for what he said is its unfair treatment of the Jewish state. U.N. officials are “quick to echo this campaign of lies” about the death toll that Hamas alleges, Erdan said.
He noted the similarity between Hamas’s recent claim and an Oct. 17 incident, when Hamas claimed massive casualties in what it said was an IDF strike on Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. The strike turned out to be a faulty Hamas rocket, which fell on the hospital grounds. Video footage and pictures showed minimal damage to a hospital courtyard, and the death toll was revised downward heavily.
“I simply cannot comprehend that the United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency session based on jihadist propaganda,” Erdan said on Tuesday, accusing Hamas of concocting “a new blood libel” and the council of “amplifying them and neglecting its obligations to tell the truth.”
Erdan held up a poster with the pictures of the terrorists Israel says it eliminated in Saturday’s strike. He then held up a second poster displaying images of 11 of the 12 Druze children killed by a Hezbollah rocket that fell on the Golan Heights village of Majdal Shams on July 27.
No Security Council member called for an urgent session following the latter attack. “Ask yourselves: Why was the murder of 12 Israeli children in Majdal Shams insufficient cause for a meeting, but the elimination of over 30 Palestinian terrorists operating out of a school is sufficient?” Erdan said.
The Israeli envoy also said that the U.N. body has ignored the threat that Iran poses, particularly as it has said it plans to attack the Jewish state.
“Right now, millions of Israelis are preparing for a direct Iranian attack,” Erdan said. “Yet, here you are wasting your time on falsehoods spread by the words of terrorists.”
‘Enough influence over Israel’
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council on Tuesday that “Hamas continues to gather and continues to operate out of schools, with no regard for the well-being of civilians.”
“The United States is deeply concerned about reports of civilian casualties following the Aug. 10 strike by the IDF on the compound in Gaza that included a school and a mosque sheltering desperate, displaced people, including women and children,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
“We have raised our concerns with Israel, and while they indicated they were targeting senior officials from Hamas and Palestinian Jihad, they have an obligation to do everything possible under international humanitarian law to protect civilians,” the U.S. envoy added.
“We mourn every civilian lost in this horrific incident and in this conflict, but this much we do know and must be acknowledged: Hamas continues to gather and continues to operate out of schools, with no regard for the well-being of civilians,” she said. “Israel has a right to pursue Hamas. Israel has a right to respond to threats. But how it does that matters. We have said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimize civilian harm.”
Thomas-Greenfield reiterated calls for a ceasefire and hostage deal.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar are brokering scheduled talks this Thursday, for which Israel has committed to sending a negotiating team. Hamas has indicated that it does not intend to send direct representation.
“Simply put: the deal needs to get done now. Now,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “As mediators, we are prepared to present a final bridging proposal: one that resolves the remaining implementation issues in a manner that meets the expectations of all parties.”
Several council members criticized both Washington and Jerusalem during Tuesday’s session.
Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, said that “ever-expanding military operations and ever-rising civilian casualties” are signs that Israel had not accepted a ceasefire agreement.
“The United States, as the largest supplier of weapons, has enough influence over Israel,” Fu said, pushing Washington to take action to stop Israel’s defense activities in Gaza.
Around the time of Fu’s speech, the U.S. State Department announced it had approved a potential $20.3 billion sale of military equipment to Israel, with the Pentagon notifying Congress of the possible sale earlier in the day.
