23 july 2014
More than a dozen Gazan prisoners being held in Israeli jails have lost members of their families to Israel's assault on the Strip, a Palestinian prisoner's rights group said Wednesday.
The Palestinian Prisoner's Society said in a statement that Salah Hamad, Hamza Abu Sawawin, Rami Zweidi, Taysir Breiem, Ahmad al-Sufi, Saddam Ashur, in addition to several others, had lost members of their family as a result of Israeli attacks.
Some of the prisoners have lost their entire families to Israeli strikes, and some of their homes had been destroyed.
A PPS lawyer who recently visited the prisoners in Nafha prison said that many of them were in a state of trauma after discovering that their parents or families had been killed in Gaza.
"Some of them started to attempt to identify those killed ... on TV," the lawyer said.
The statement said the prisoners were experiencing "the hardest days" of their lives.
Israel's latest offensive on Gaza, dubbed "Operation Protective Edge," has left over 650 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians. Over 4,000 Palestinians have been injured.
Thirty-one Israelis, all but two of them soldiers, have also died in the fighting, in addition to a foreign civilian worker who died Wednesday after being hit by mortar fire in southern Israel.
The Palestinian Prisoner's Society said in a statement that Salah Hamad, Hamza Abu Sawawin, Rami Zweidi, Taysir Breiem, Ahmad al-Sufi, Saddam Ashur, in addition to several others, had lost members of their family as a result of Israeli attacks.
Some of the prisoners have lost their entire families to Israeli strikes, and some of their homes had been destroyed.
A PPS lawyer who recently visited the prisoners in Nafha prison said that many of them were in a state of trauma after discovering that their parents or families had been killed in Gaza.
"Some of them started to attempt to identify those killed ... on TV," the lawyer said.
The statement said the prisoners were experiencing "the hardest days" of their lives.
Israel's latest offensive on Gaza, dubbed "Operation Protective Edge," has left over 650 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians. Over 4,000 Palestinians have been injured.
Thirty-one Israelis, all but two of them soldiers, have also died in the fighting, in addition to a foreign civilian worker who died Wednesday after being hit by mortar fire in southern Israel.
Islamic Jihad's military wing on Wednesday said that its fighters had killed three Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip.
The al-Quds Brigades said in a statement that its militants had set up an ambush al-Khuzaa near Khan Younis, killing three soldiers.
An Israeli army spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the claim.
Also Wednesday, Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades said its fighters had carried out an attack on an Israeli tank in the northern Gaza Strip.
"Our fighters at 10 a.m. today bombed a 'Merkavah' tank in eastern Jabaliya," the Brigades' statement said.
According to official Israeli figures, 29 soldiers have died in Gaza since it began its ground invasion on July 17.
Over 650 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since Israel's latest offensive on the Strip started on July 8.
The al-Quds Brigades said in a statement that its militants had set up an ambush al-Khuzaa near Khan Younis, killing three soldiers.
An Israeli army spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the claim.
Also Wednesday, Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades said its fighters had carried out an attack on an Israeli tank in the northern Gaza Strip.
"Our fighters at 10 a.m. today bombed a 'Merkavah' tank in eastern Jabaliya," the Brigades' statement said.
According to official Israeli figures, 29 soldiers have died in Gaza since it began its ground invasion on July 17.
Over 650 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since Israel's latest offensive on the Strip started on July 8.
Palestinian killed in airstrike in al-Zaytoun
A Palestinian was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
Medics identified the victim as Muhammad Abdulraouf.
A Palestinian was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
Medics identified the victim as Muhammad Abdulraouf.
5 killed in shelling on al-Qarrara in Khan Younis
Five Palestinians were killed in the neighborhood of al-Qarrara in Khan Younis on Wednesday amid heavy Israeli shelling.
Medics dug the bodies of Mahmoud and Nour al-Abadleh as well as Hassan Khalil Salah Abu Jamus, 29, and Muhammad Farid al-Astal from the rubble of buildings in two separate areas.
A fifth body was also recovered but was still unidentified.
Five Palestinians were killed in the neighborhood of al-Qarrara in Khan Younis on Wednesday amid heavy Israeli shelling.
Medics dug the bodies of Mahmoud and Nour al-Abadleh as well as Hassan Khalil Salah Abu Jamus, 29, and Muhammad Farid al-Astal from the rubble of buildings in two separate areas.
A fifth body was also recovered but was still unidentified.
Report: Army warns Gaza's main al-Shifa hospital of impending strike
Israel National News said on Wednesday that the Israeli army warned Gaza Strip's main hospital Ash-Shifa to evacuate ahead of an airstrike.
The Israeli army, however, denied the report.
Israel National News said on Wednesday that the Israeli army warned Gaza Strip's main hospital Ash-Shifa to evacuate ahead of an airstrike.
The Israeli army, however, denied the report.
Several Palestinians were injured on Wednesday after Israeli forces shelled the area around a 700-year-old mosque in central Gaza, medical sources said.
The mosque, known as al-Shamaa ("The Candle"), is located in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City and was reportedly shelled just before noon.
Also known as Bab ad-Darum, the mosque is located in a dense area near Gaza's historic Old City that has been bombed numerous times by Israeli forces.
The mosque, known as al-Shamaa ("The Candle"), is located in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City and was reportedly shelled just before noon.
Also known as Bab ad-Darum, the mosque is located in a dense area near Gaza's historic Old City that has been bombed numerous times by Israeli forces.
By Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
His latest book is "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story."
On the 13th day of Israel's so-called Operation Protective Edge, stories of entire families collectively pulverized, women, and children keenly targeted by Israeli soldiers saturate the media.
Until now, more than 630 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 27 Israel soldiers been killed at the hands of the Resistance. In Shujaiyya, elders, mothers and children scrambled for cover as shells mercilessly rained down, stealing the souls of countless innocents.
The destruction is overwhelming, and everywhere, Palestinians lament there is nowhere that is safe. Regardless, resolve is strong and the people of Gaza will not resign themselves to surrender.
The resistance movement in Gaza is often misrepresented intentionally at times, and at other times innocuously. In the heat of the information battle that has ensued since Israel unleashed its latest war many facts and essential context have gone missing.
Historically, Gaza has been a hub for uninterrupted popular resistance since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine at the hands of Zionist militias, and later the Israeli army, in 1947-48. An estimated 200,000 of Palestine’s then nearly 800,000 refugees were forced there, with most enduring squalid and humiliating conditions.
Despite the shock of war and the humiliation of defeat, Gazans fought back almost immediately. There was no Fatah, no Hamas, and no siege -- in comparison to its current definition -- and Gazans did not organize around any political factions, or ideologies. Rather they assembled in small groups known to Gazans as Fedayeen -- freedom fighters.
These were dispossessed refugees still unaware of the complexity of their political surroundings, and the Fedayeen were mostly young Palestinian refugees fighting to return to their home. But their operations grew bolder day by day.
They would sneak back into their towns -- which then eventually became part of Israel -- with primitive weapons and homemade bombs. They would kill Israeli soldiers, steal their weapons and return with the new weapons the second night.
Some would secretly go back to their villages in Palestine to 'steal' food, blankets and whatever money they had failed to retrieve in the rush of war. Those who never returned received the funerals of martyrs, with thousands of fellow refugees marching with symbolic coffins to graveyards. Hundreds never returned and few bodies were ever recovered.
Following every Fedayeen strike, the Israeli army would hit back at Gaza's refugees, inspiring yet more support and recruits for the growing commando movement.
The prowess of those young refugee fighters was on full display in November 1956, when Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and large swathes of Sinai following the Suez Crisis. Egyptians fought the Israeli army with much courage, but the Palestinian garrison based in Khan Younis -- now a major target in the latest Israeli war -- refused to surrender.
When the fighting was over, Israel moved into Khan Younis and carried out what is now etched in the Palestinian collective memory as one of the most horrific mass killings in Gaza's history -- a massacre of 124 men and boys in the Rafah refugee camp known as al-Amiriyah School Massacre.
"The victims were herded into the school under the batons of the soldiers," reflects Dr Ahmed Yousef, in a recent article. "Those who survived the beatings were met with a hail of bullets and the demolition of the building over their heads. The bloodstains stayed on the school walls for years to remind us children of Israel's crime."
Yousef, then a child in a brutalized Rafah, would later become a top adviser to Hamas' first Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh in Gaza. His article, originally published in Arabic, was entitled: "The Resistance will not surrender ... we will be victorious or die."
Are there any surprises in how the past is knitted both to Gaza's present and future? It should also be of no surprise that Palestine's mightiest resistance today, the Ezz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was formed by a small group of school kids in the central Gaza Strip.
These were poor refugees who grew up witnessing the brutality of the occupation, and the abuse it invited into their daily lives. The group adopted the name of Ezz al-Din al-Qassam, an Arab preacher who fought British colonialism and the Zionist forces until he was killed by British forces in a Jenin orchard in 1935.
The first young men who started al-Qassam were all killed shortly after the inception of their group. But what they started has since become a massive movement of thousands of fighting men and woman which, as this article was being written, were keeping Israeli forces in northern Gaza at bay.
Resistance in Gaza, as in any historical inevitability, can never be interrupted. Successive Israeli governments have tried extreme measures for decades before the so-called Operation Cast Lead of 2008-9.
After the 1967 war, Ariel Sharon was entrusted with the bloody task of "pacifying" the headstrong Strip. Then the head of Israel's military's southern command, he was nicknamed the "Bulldozer" for good reason.
Sharon understood that pacifying Gaza would require heavy armored vehicles, since Gaza's crowded neighborhoods and alleyways weaving through its destitute refugee camps were not suited for heavy machinery. So he bulldozed homes, thousands of them, to pave the way so tanks and yet more bulldozers could move in and topple more homes.
Modest estimates put the number of houses destroyed in August 1970 alone at 2,000. Over 16,000 Palestinians were made homeless, with thousands forced to relocate from one refugee camp into another.
The al-Shati ("Beach") refugee camp near Gaza City sustained most of the damage, with many fleeing for their lives and taking refuge in mosques and UN schools and tents. Sharon’s declared objective was targeting "terrorist infrastructure." What he in fact meant to do was target the very population that resisted and aided the resistance.
Indeed, they were the very infrastructure he harshly pounded for many days and weeks. Sharon's bloody sweep also resulted in the execution of 104 resistance fighters and the deportation of hundreds of others, some to Jordan, and others to Lebanon. The rest were simply left to rot in the Sinai desert.
It is the same "terrorist infrastructure" that Sharon's follower, Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking to destroy by using the same tactics of collective punishment, and applying the same language and media talking points.
In Gaza, the past and the present are intertwined. Israel is united by the same purpose: crushing anyone who dares to resist. Palestinians in Gaza are also united with a common threat: their resistance, which, despite impossible odds seems likely to intensify.
Just by taking a quick glance at the history of this protracted battle -- the refugees versus the Middle East’s 'strongest army' -- one can say with a great degree of conviction that Israel cannot possibly subdue Gaza. You may call that a historical inevitability as well.
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
His latest book is "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story."
On the 13th day of Israel's so-called Operation Protective Edge, stories of entire families collectively pulverized, women, and children keenly targeted by Israeli soldiers saturate the media.
Until now, more than 630 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 27 Israel soldiers been killed at the hands of the Resistance. In Shujaiyya, elders, mothers and children scrambled for cover as shells mercilessly rained down, stealing the souls of countless innocents.
The destruction is overwhelming, and everywhere, Palestinians lament there is nowhere that is safe. Regardless, resolve is strong and the people of Gaza will not resign themselves to surrender.
The resistance movement in Gaza is often misrepresented intentionally at times, and at other times innocuously. In the heat of the information battle that has ensued since Israel unleashed its latest war many facts and essential context have gone missing.
Historically, Gaza has been a hub for uninterrupted popular resistance since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine at the hands of Zionist militias, and later the Israeli army, in 1947-48. An estimated 200,000 of Palestine’s then nearly 800,000 refugees were forced there, with most enduring squalid and humiliating conditions.
Despite the shock of war and the humiliation of defeat, Gazans fought back almost immediately. There was no Fatah, no Hamas, and no siege -- in comparison to its current definition -- and Gazans did not organize around any political factions, or ideologies. Rather they assembled in small groups known to Gazans as Fedayeen -- freedom fighters.
These were dispossessed refugees still unaware of the complexity of their political surroundings, and the Fedayeen were mostly young Palestinian refugees fighting to return to their home. But their operations grew bolder day by day.
They would sneak back into their towns -- which then eventually became part of Israel -- with primitive weapons and homemade bombs. They would kill Israeli soldiers, steal their weapons and return with the new weapons the second night.
Some would secretly go back to their villages in Palestine to 'steal' food, blankets and whatever money they had failed to retrieve in the rush of war. Those who never returned received the funerals of martyrs, with thousands of fellow refugees marching with symbolic coffins to graveyards. Hundreds never returned and few bodies were ever recovered.
Following every Fedayeen strike, the Israeli army would hit back at Gaza's refugees, inspiring yet more support and recruits for the growing commando movement.
The prowess of those young refugee fighters was on full display in November 1956, when Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and large swathes of Sinai following the Suez Crisis. Egyptians fought the Israeli army with much courage, but the Palestinian garrison based in Khan Younis -- now a major target in the latest Israeli war -- refused to surrender.
When the fighting was over, Israel moved into Khan Younis and carried out what is now etched in the Palestinian collective memory as one of the most horrific mass killings in Gaza's history -- a massacre of 124 men and boys in the Rafah refugee camp known as al-Amiriyah School Massacre.
"The victims were herded into the school under the batons of the soldiers," reflects Dr Ahmed Yousef, in a recent article. "Those who survived the beatings were met with a hail of bullets and the demolition of the building over their heads. The bloodstains stayed on the school walls for years to remind us children of Israel's crime."
Yousef, then a child in a brutalized Rafah, would later become a top adviser to Hamas' first Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh in Gaza. His article, originally published in Arabic, was entitled: "The Resistance will not surrender ... we will be victorious or die."
Are there any surprises in how the past is knitted both to Gaza's present and future? It should also be of no surprise that Palestine's mightiest resistance today, the Ezz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was formed by a small group of school kids in the central Gaza Strip.
These were poor refugees who grew up witnessing the brutality of the occupation, and the abuse it invited into their daily lives. The group adopted the name of Ezz al-Din al-Qassam, an Arab preacher who fought British colonialism and the Zionist forces until he was killed by British forces in a Jenin orchard in 1935.
The first young men who started al-Qassam were all killed shortly after the inception of their group. But what they started has since become a massive movement of thousands of fighting men and woman which, as this article was being written, were keeping Israeli forces in northern Gaza at bay.
Resistance in Gaza, as in any historical inevitability, can never be interrupted. Successive Israeli governments have tried extreme measures for decades before the so-called Operation Cast Lead of 2008-9.
After the 1967 war, Ariel Sharon was entrusted with the bloody task of "pacifying" the headstrong Strip. Then the head of Israel's military's southern command, he was nicknamed the "Bulldozer" for good reason.
Sharon understood that pacifying Gaza would require heavy armored vehicles, since Gaza's crowded neighborhoods and alleyways weaving through its destitute refugee camps were not suited for heavy machinery. So he bulldozed homes, thousands of them, to pave the way so tanks and yet more bulldozers could move in and topple more homes.
Modest estimates put the number of houses destroyed in August 1970 alone at 2,000. Over 16,000 Palestinians were made homeless, with thousands forced to relocate from one refugee camp into another.
The al-Shati ("Beach") refugee camp near Gaza City sustained most of the damage, with many fleeing for their lives and taking refuge in mosques and UN schools and tents. Sharon’s declared objective was targeting "terrorist infrastructure." What he in fact meant to do was target the very population that resisted and aided the resistance.
Indeed, they were the very infrastructure he harshly pounded for many days and weeks. Sharon's bloody sweep also resulted in the execution of 104 resistance fighters and the deportation of hundreds of others, some to Jordan, and others to Lebanon. The rest were simply left to rot in the Sinai desert.
It is the same "terrorist infrastructure" that Sharon's follower, Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking to destroy by using the same tactics of collective punishment, and applying the same language and media talking points.
In Gaza, the past and the present are intertwined. Israel is united by the same purpose: crushing anyone who dares to resist. Palestinians in Gaza are also united with a common threat: their resistance, which, despite impossible odds seems likely to intensify.
Just by taking a quick glance at the history of this protracted battle -- the refugees versus the Middle East’s 'strongest army' -- one can say with a great degree of conviction that Israel cannot possibly subdue Gaza. You may call that a historical inevitability as well.
Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim Ben Hamad Al Thani
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, made a surprise visit Tuesday to Saudi Arabia where he discussed developments in strife-torn Gaza with King Abdullah, state media said.
The two leaders "discussed cooperation between the two countries, in addition to developments ... topped by the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories," SPA state news agency said.
The visit comes amid intensifying efforts to end 15 days of violence between the Israeli army and militants in the Gaza Strip, which is largely controlled by the Palestinian movement Hamas.
Relations between Doha and Riyadh remain tense after sinking to a new low in March when Saudi Arabia pulled its envoy from Qatar, along with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
They accused Doha of meddling in their affairs.
Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement of Egypt's former president Mohammed Morsi who was ousted by the army in July 2013, has infuriated the Gulf states that fully backed the then military-installed government.
Egypt has proposed a ceasefire in Gaza followed by indirect talks.
But Hamas has said it would not accept the Egyptian proposal, insisting instead on firm commitments first to end Israel's eight-year blockade of the coastal enclave.
Hamas has also sought a role for Turkey and Doha in the efforts to reach a truce.
UN chief Ban Ki-Moon stopped in Doha on Monday as he began a regional tour to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, made a surprise visit Tuesday to Saudi Arabia where he discussed developments in strife-torn Gaza with King Abdullah, state media said.
The two leaders "discussed cooperation between the two countries, in addition to developments ... topped by the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories," SPA state news agency said.
The visit comes amid intensifying efforts to end 15 days of violence between the Israeli army and militants in the Gaza Strip, which is largely controlled by the Palestinian movement Hamas.
Relations between Doha and Riyadh remain tense after sinking to a new low in March when Saudi Arabia pulled its envoy from Qatar, along with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
They accused Doha of meddling in their affairs.
Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement of Egypt's former president Mohammed Morsi who was ousted by the army in July 2013, has infuriated the Gulf states that fully backed the then military-installed government.
Egypt has proposed a ceasefire in Gaza followed by indirect talks.
But Hamas has said it would not accept the Egyptian proposal, insisting instead on firm commitments first to end Israel's eight-year blockade of the coastal enclave.
Hamas has also sought a role for Turkey and Doha in the efforts to reach a truce.
UN chief Ban Ki-Moon stopped in Doha on Monday as he began a regional tour to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Heavy rocket fire from Gaza into Eshkol, Sderot, Ashkelon
Sirens were sounded in the southern Israeli cities of Eshkol, Sderot, and Ashkelon on Wednesday morning amid heavy rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Sirens were sounded in the southern Israeli cities of Eshkol, Sderot, and Ashkelon on Wednesday morning amid heavy rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Ministry of Transportation on Wednesday offered to open an airport in the southern Israeli city of Eilat to international flights after a slew of international carriers pulled flights to Tel Aviv out of safety concerns, Israeli media said.
A report on Israel's Channel 10 highlighted that Israel had exerted major efforts in the last 24 hours to convince international companies to resume flights to Ben Gurion airport, which many European and US carriers halted after a Gaza rocket landed in the nearby town of Yehud.
The report said that US airlines had decided to halt flights for 24 hours beginning Tuesday evening, while European airlines had halted flights to Israel for 36 hours also beginning Tuesday evening.
The cancellation of dozens of flights in and out of Tel Aviv sparked ire in Israel, where it was seen by many as a victory for Hamas' effort to shut down daily life in the country.
Palestinian militant groups including Hamas have fired 1,840 rockets according to the Israeli military, leading to panic and fear across southern Israel but causing few casualties or damage.
The rocket strike on Yehud on Tuesday, however, hit a house and sparked panic that earlier threats to strike the airport would be realized.
A report on Israel's Channel 10 highlighted that Israel had exerted major efforts in the last 24 hours to convince international companies to resume flights to Ben Gurion airport, which many European and US carriers halted after a Gaza rocket landed in the nearby town of Yehud.
The report said that US airlines had decided to halt flights for 24 hours beginning Tuesday evening, while European airlines had halted flights to Israel for 36 hours also beginning Tuesday evening.
The cancellation of dozens of flights in and out of Tel Aviv sparked ire in Israel, where it was seen by many as a victory for Hamas' effort to shut down daily life in the country.
Palestinian militant groups including Hamas have fired 1,840 rockets according to the Israeli military, leading to panic and fear across southern Israel but causing few casualties or damage.
The rocket strike on Yehud on Tuesday, however, hit a house and sparked panic that earlier threats to strike the airport would be realized.
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations held up photographs of children slain in Gaza and read out names of the dead on Tuesday as he pleaded for action from the Security Council.
"On behalf of the Palestinian people, we ask: What is the international community doing to stop this bloodletting, to stop Israel's atrocities?" Riyad Mansour said during a debate on the Gaza crisis.
Wearing a black ribbon, he showed photographs of families overcome with grief and of children's corpses, and read out the names of young victims who lost their lives. "Umama Al-Hayyeh, age 9; Dima Isleem, age 2; Mohamad Ayyad, age 2; Rahaf Abu Jumaa, age 4..."
During an emergency session on Sunday, the Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire and demanded protection for civilians, but it fell short of taking the stronger step of adopting a formal resolution.
"Without decisive action, the Council's resolutions and statements ring hollow as defenseless civilians find no relief from the murderous Israeli war machine," said Mansour.
Jordan submitted a draft resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire, protection for civilians and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
The draft text, seen by AFP, calls for lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza and renewed efforts to achieve a two-state peace deal for Israel and Palestine.
It remained unclear when the measure would come up for discussion before the divided Council, with the United States expected to raise objections over the text.
Envoys from some 60 countries lined up to address the Security Council as Israel kept up its barrage of shells and air strikes and Hamas militants hit back with rockets, pushing the Palestinian death toll to more than 600 -- including more than 150 children -- in a conflict now in its third week.
Israel's 'last resort'
Israel's deputy envoy asserted that his country was acting in self-defense against Hamas, which it accused of using Palestinian casualties as "fuel for a propaganda machine."
"This is not a war we chose. It was our last resort," said David Roet.
Arab countries however questioned Israel's claim that it was acting in self-defense, pointing to the heavy toll among Palestinian civilians, in particular women and children.
"The Torah says an eye for an eye. It never claimed 100 eyes for just one," said Egypt's Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Council by videolink from Ramallah that his efforts to secure a ceasefire had reached a "highly sensitive moment" and voiced hope for results "in the very near future."
World leaders have expressed alarm over the rising death toll, with US Secretary of State John Kerry also holding talks in Cairo to shore up Egypt's efforts to broker a truce.
US Ambassador Samantha Power warned that the humanitarian crisis could worsen in Gaza and stressed that "the only solution is an immediate ceasefire."
More than 100,000 Palestinians have fled their homes and are sheltering in schools run by the UN relief agency UNRWA.
"On behalf of the Palestinian people, we ask: What is the international community doing to stop this bloodletting, to stop Israel's atrocities?" Riyad Mansour said during a debate on the Gaza crisis.
Wearing a black ribbon, he showed photographs of families overcome with grief and of children's corpses, and read out the names of young victims who lost their lives. "Umama Al-Hayyeh, age 9; Dima Isleem, age 2; Mohamad Ayyad, age 2; Rahaf Abu Jumaa, age 4..."
During an emergency session on Sunday, the Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire and demanded protection for civilians, but it fell short of taking the stronger step of adopting a formal resolution.
"Without decisive action, the Council's resolutions and statements ring hollow as defenseless civilians find no relief from the murderous Israeli war machine," said Mansour.
Jordan submitted a draft resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire, protection for civilians and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
The draft text, seen by AFP, calls for lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza and renewed efforts to achieve a two-state peace deal for Israel and Palestine.
It remained unclear when the measure would come up for discussion before the divided Council, with the United States expected to raise objections over the text.
Envoys from some 60 countries lined up to address the Security Council as Israel kept up its barrage of shells and air strikes and Hamas militants hit back with rockets, pushing the Palestinian death toll to more than 600 -- including more than 150 children -- in a conflict now in its third week.
Israel's 'last resort'
Israel's deputy envoy asserted that his country was acting in self-defense against Hamas, which it accused of using Palestinian casualties as "fuel for a propaganda machine."
"This is not a war we chose. It was our last resort," said David Roet.
Arab countries however questioned Israel's claim that it was acting in self-defense, pointing to the heavy toll among Palestinian civilians, in particular women and children.
"The Torah says an eye for an eye. It never claimed 100 eyes for just one," said Egypt's Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Council by videolink from Ramallah that his efforts to secure a ceasefire had reached a "highly sensitive moment" and voiced hope for results "in the very near future."
World leaders have expressed alarm over the rising death toll, with US Secretary of State John Kerry also holding talks in Cairo to shore up Egypt's efforts to broker a truce.
US Ambassador Samantha Power warned that the humanitarian crisis could worsen in Gaza and stressed that "the only solution is an immediate ceasefire."
More than 100,000 Palestinians have fled their homes and are sheltering in schools run by the UN relief agency UNRWA.
