New York - Saba:
Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, announced that the Panama mission, which holds the Security Council presidency, stalled and postponed the meeting on Gaza until Sunday for unclear reasons.
Polyansky confirmed on Friday that "several missions, including the Russian one, tried to hold the Council session on Friday due to the seriousness of the issue, but this did not succeed."
On Saturday, he said, "The Panamanians decided, for reasons that are not entirely clear, to stall and postpone the meeting on Israel's actions in Gaza until 10:00 a.m. New York time (5:00 p.m. Moscow time) on Sunday, August 10."
On Friday, the Pakistani mission to the United Nations reported that the UN Security Council would hold an emergency meeting on Israel's plans to take control of the Gaza Strip at 10:00 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday. The Palestinian representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, confirmed that the UN Security Council may hold an emergency session on Friday or Saturday following the Israeli decision to occupy Gaza.
He added, "We will submit a letter to the Security Council reminding it of its responsibilities to immediately address the occupation's decision...and some countries are preparing a request for the Security Council to hold an emergency meeting as soon as possible."
The Israeli government approved the occupation of Gaza City and the expansion of military operations in the Strip during a security and political cabinet meeting that lasted approximately 10 hours, from Thursday evening until Friday morning.
At the conclusion of the consultations, the cabinet authorized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Israel Katz, to approve the occupation army's operational plans to occupy the entire Gaza Strip.
In contrast, the headquarters of the families of Israeli prisoners stressed, following the decision, that "the Israeli government issued a death sentence last night for living prisoners and a disappearance sentence for the dead."
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