Ban condemns Gaza rocket attack
India Blooms News Service
New York, Mar 18 (IBNS) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Thursday’s rocket attack from Gaza which killed a civilian in Israel, stressing that all acts of violence are “totally unacceptable”.
The rocket reportedly struck the Netiv Ha'assera kibbutz in southern Israel killing a foreign agricultural worker.
“All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law,” Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement issued in Moscow, where the Secretary-General will be meeting with other members of the Middle East Quartet on Friday.
The 19 March meeting brings together the UN, the European Union, the United States and Russia, which last week called for the urgent resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians to resolve all outstanding issues of the conflict.
Ban has said he hopes the meeting, which comes amid rising tensions between the two sides as well as Israel’s announcement that it plans to expand settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory of East Jerusalem, will spur direct negotiations.
From the Russian capital, the Secretary-General is scheduled to travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, where he hopes to see the situation on the ground in Gaza more than a year after the end of Operation Cast Lead, the three-week Israeli military offensive conducted with the stated aim of ending rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. |
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