Outside the meeting at UN headquarters in New York, a small but noisy protest calling for an end to the conflict was met by a large police presence.
Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said Friday that “this escalation by the Israeli government is going in total contradiction to the will of the international community”.
The United States, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, is likely to seek to shield its staunch ally Israel from any practical measure of UN censure.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said ahead of the meeting that “Israel will not stop fighting for the release of all the hostages – and ensuring the safety and security of our citizens is our duty”.
