UN envoy urges quick action to avoid Israel-Palestinian war

The UN's Mideast envoy called on Wednesday for urgent action to avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war sparked by the Israeli killings in Gaza.

Nikolay Mladenov told the UN Security Council that "Gaza is on the verge of collapse" and urgent action is also needed to relieve the suffering of its "increasingly desperate" people.

Israeli-Palestinian relations are at their lowest point in years in the aftermath of the US embassy move to Jerusalem and massacres on the Gaza border, where Israeli fire has killed over 100 Palestinians during mass protests since March.

Mladenov said the people of Gaza have survived three "devastating conflicts" and have lived under Hamas control for over a decade "with crippling Israeli closures and with diminishing hopes for an end to the occupation and a political solution."

"We must act urgently to avoid another war, to alleviate the suffering of people and to empower the Palestinian government to take up its responsibilities in Gaza," Mladenov said.

The Islamic militant group Hamas forcibly wrested control of Gaza from the rival Fatah party in 2007 after winning legislative elections, triggering an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has severely restricted the movement of most of Gaza's 2 million inhabitants.

Egyptian efforts, backed by the United States, to negotiate a deal that would sideline Hamas and enable Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' self-rule government and Fatah party to return to Gaza have failed.

Mladenov again called on all countries to join "in condemning in the strongest possible terms the actions that have led to the loss of so many lives in Gaza" since March.

According to the UN humanitarian office, in the past month 76 Palestinians, including 11 children, have been killed by Israeli forces and over 3,000 injured by live fire and other means, he said.

"This period has seen by far the worst levels of violence since 2014" when Israel and Hamas fought a war, Mladenov said, adding that Israel suffered no fatalities.

He stressed that Israel has a responsibility not to use lethal force "except as a last resort under imminent threat of death or serious injury."

After Mladenov's briefing, the Security Council held closed consultations including on a proposed UN resolution backed by Arab nations that would condemn Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians "in the strongest terms," especially in Gaza, and authorise the deployment of an international force to protect civilians.

The Kuwait-sponsored draft resolution also calls for "the full lifting of the blockade" of Gaza and demands that Israel immediately stop the "unlawful use of force against civilians, including in the Gaza Strip."

Kuwait circulated the draft late last week after the Security Council failed to agree even on a press statement about the May 14 confrontation in Gaza where Israeli troops killed over 60 Palestinians during mass border protests.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, blocked the press statement and a diplomat said the US told the closed council consultations on Wednesday it would not negotiate on the Kuwait resolution, virtually assuring a US veto if it is put to a vote.