Most members of the UN Security Council blamed Israel for the bloodshed in Jerusalem and the West Bank, but all stressed the importance of peace talks due to take place in Paris. Most speakers in an emotionally charged council debate on Tuesday expressed shock at the shooting of Mohammed Al-Durra, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who died in his father's arms as he sheltered behind a wall in Gaza on Friday. But while the US ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbroke, said that now is not the time to be apportioning blame, others said the violence was triggered by Israeli Opposition leader Ariel Sharon.
The Palestinian observer to the UN, Nasser Ai-Kidwa, who was invited to speak first, described Sharon's visit on Thursday to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on temple mount in Jerusalem as provocative and insulting. But, ZWA said, it was the Israeli security forces which were responsible for the ensuing heavy loss of life. By on Tuesday evening, the clashes had claimed 63 lives, almost all of them Palestinians or Israeli Arabs.

Seated at one end of the horeseshoe-shaped table in the Security Council chamber, Ai-Kidwa spoke haltingly, sometimes with tears in his eyes.
He urged the Council to carry out its very specific responsibility to bring to end the bloody campaign by Israelis security forces and violations of the fourth Geneva Convention on protecting civilians in time of war.
Bureau Report