Israel Decries 'Blatant War Crimes' By Hamas At UNSC Meet. Palestine Calls Out Blockade, Repeated Assaults

Israel UN Ambassador decried Hamas of 'blatant war crimes' while Palestinian Ambassador called out Tel Aviv for blockade and repeated assaults on Gaza

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan

Source : Getty Images

Israel on Sunday accused Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of war crimes and vowed that it was time to "obliterate" the outfit's "terror infrastructure" at the UN Security Council meeting. In a surprise attack on Saturday, Hamas militants stormed into Israeli towns killing over 600 people and taking dozens of hostages. Israel fired in retaliation towards Gaza which has killed 370 people so far with over 2,000 wounded. 

"These are war crimes, blatant documented war crimes," Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said ahead of the closed-door meeting of the 15-member Security Council meeting, as per Reuters. 

"The era of reasoning with these savages is over," he said, adding: "Now is the time to obliterate Hamas terror infrastructure, to completely erase it, so that such horrors are never committed again."

"Economic incentives cannot change genocidal ideologies. It did not work with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and it doesn't work with Hamas," he said. 

Harbouring "steadfast support", the Israeli Ambassador said his country will "not accept any false immoral comparisons between a terror group that targets innocent and the democratic state of Israel."

Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour also called out Israel saying, "Israel keeps saying: The blockade and repeated assaults on Gaza are to destroy Hamas military capabilities and ensure security. ... Its blockade and assaults accomplished neither." 

"When Israel now tries to justify yet another assault by the same faulty premise, no one should say or do anything to encourage it down this path," Mansour said.

The council meeting went on for 90 minutes where U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland briefed the situation. 

As per the Reuters reports, the diplomats said that it was unlikely that the Security Council would issue a statement, which was agreed to by consensus. 

Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood told reporters that it was not a priority for Washington at the moment.

"What's important now is the international community show its solidarity with Israel. We have Israel's back fully," Wood told reporters after the meeting. "The condemnation of Hamas needs to continue until they end this violent terrorist activity against the Israeli people."