MUSCAT/GAZA CITY: Through a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the Sultanate of Oman on Sunday expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the attacks staged by Israeli occupation forces against Gaza Strip. Oman urged the international community to shoulder its responsibilities, halt the escalation and support the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights by ending the occupation and establishing fair and comprehensive peace.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is to discuss Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza in a closed doors session in New York on Monday, as the death toll continued to rise, with 31 people confirmed dead and 275 injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The UN’s most powerful body agreed to address the attacks following requests for it to do so made by the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, France, Norway and China on Saturday, according to diplomatic sources.
PROPOSED TRUCE
Israel on Sunday agreed to an Egyptian proposed truce with Palestinians after three days of intense conflict, an Egyptian source said, as Islamic Jihad reported talks towards a ceasefire were under way.
The negotiations raise hopes that Egypt could help broker a deal to end the worst fighting in Gaza since an 11-day war last year devastated the impoverished coastal territory, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
Since last Friday, Israel has carried out heavy aerial and artillery bombardment of positions in Gaza, with the activists firing hundreds of rockets in retaliation.
At least 31 Palestinians have been killed including six children, and 275 people have been wounded since Friday, health authorities said in the enclave where several buildings were reduced to rubble.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al Sisi has said officials were talking with both sides “around the clock” to ease the violence. A security source in Cairo said that Israel “has accepted” a ceasefire, adding that Cairo was waiting for the Palestinian response.
A source from Islamic Jihad said that “discussions are under way at the highest levels towards calm”, but warned that “the resistance will not stop if the occupation’s (Israel) aggression and crimes do not stop”.
Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director general of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, said medics were treating wounded people in a “very bad condition”, warning of dire shortages of drugs and fuel to run power generators.
“Every minute we receive injured people,” he said, earlier on Sunday.
