The United Nations Security Council convened an emergency session Friday night over “Land Day” clashes at the Gaza border brought on by the Hamas so-called “Great March of Return” – during the Jewish holiday Passover seder and despite fierce opposition by Israel and the United States. Despite requests filed by delegations from both permanent missions to postpone the meeting until after the Passover holiday, the Security Council nevertheless convened during the seder — at the request of Kuwait — to discuss the situation in Gaza.
(Land Day marks the expropriation of Arab-owned land in the Galilee by the Israeli government that resulted in violent, nationwide Arab rioting that left six Arab Israelis dead and hundreds injured on March 30, 1976. This year Land Day and the eve of Passover fell on the same day — further complicating an already tense situation. The Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization make a strong effort each year at this time to exploit this theme and promote as much anti-Israel incitement and violence as possible.)
At least 15 Gaza demonstrators were killed and 1,200 injured — most of the injuries due to tear gas — in clashes with IDF forces at six locations along the Gaza border. Some 30,000 protesters massed along the security fence, burning tires, hurling firebombs (Molotov cocktails) and throwing rocks at the fence and at Israeli Defense Forces.
Arab media reported two armed terrorists were killed in a gunfight with IDF soldiers, but Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization admitted to journalists that at least five of the dead were members of its own military wing, the Izz a-Din al Qassam Brigades.
In New York, the Palestinian Authority representative addressed the Council during the meeting, while Israeli representatives were not present due to the sacred holiday.
“While Jews around the world gathered with their family at the Seder table to celebrate the Passover holiday, the Palestinians sunk to a new deceitful low so that they could use the UN to spread lies about Israel,” said Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon.
“This shameful exploitation of our holiday will not succeed in stopping us from speaking the truth about the Hamas terror-gatherings that aim to destabilize the region,” Danon added.