Palestinian envoy to the United Kingdom Husam Zomlot has said that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is “17,000-innocent-people-killed late” to urge Israel to protect civilians during its offensive in Gaza.

Zomlot said Blinken was “too late” and that the US and the international community now needed to focus on two things, including the need “to stop this carnage immediately”.

The envoy said this was the “time for action” and the international community “needed to regain respect for its own rules and order”.

On the US discussing the future of Gaza, Zomlot said, “We can no longer discuss the day after because we don’t know what the next morning will look like.”