UNITED NATIONS: Pale­stine’s UN Ambassador Riyadh Mansoor wept during his speech at the UN Security Council meeting held on Friday afternoon to deliberate on the situation in Gaza .

“With every moment that passes, the life of another Palestinian child or mother or father is cruelly taken by the Israeli occupying forces in their murderous rampage of airstrikes and artillery bombardment against civilian areas, and now a massive ground invasion in the Gaza Strip, threatening the safety and survival of the entire Palestinian civilian population,” said Mansoor breaking down time and again.

He maintained Pales­tinian President Mahmud Abbas had “continuously engaged” in ceasefire talks with efforts from countries such as Egypt and Turkey. The Palestinian ambassador said Israel is not acting in self-defense but with planned “vengeful military aggression.”

“Before the eyes of the world, Israel is waging a war against a defenceless civilian population, trampling human rights, committing grave breaches of international humanitarian law, and destroying the pillars of the international system as it forces a repugnant double-standard upon the international community with its cynical pretexts, including destroying the credibility of the Security Council, which continues to stand aside Israel flagrantly violates its resolutions without consequences,” Mansour asserted.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2014