2018年CRI 55 Palestinians killed in bloody day of clashes in eastern Gaza

 55 Palestinians killed in bloody 1 day of clashes in eastern Gaza

A day of violent confrontations 2 between Palestinian protestors and Israeli soldiers in the eastern Gaza Strip next to the border with Israel has reportedly left at least 55 Palestinians dead and close to 28-hundred others hurt.

This is prompting a new response by the international community.

CRI's Yu Yang has more.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Permanent Observer to the United Nations, is condemning 4 the latest violence, calling the Israeli actions an atrocity 5.

"We condemn 3 in the strongest term this atrocity by the Israeli occupying forces using this massive firepower against civilians 6 who have the right to demonstrate peacefully and they have been demonstrating peacefully."

The United Nations Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting to address the escalating 8 violence.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling on Israel to minimize the use of live fire at the border.

Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General, urges both sides to exercise restraint.

"The Secretary-General said that Israel must calibrate 9 its use of force and minimized the use of live fire. Lethal 10 force should be used only as a last resort under imminent 11 threat of death or serious injury. And he added that Hamas and the leaders of the demonstrations 13 must keep protesters away from the Gaza fence and prevent all violent actions, provocations 14 and attempts to breach 15 the fence."

The statement from the UN chief has also issued another call for the creation of a two-state solution "with Palestine and Israel living side by side in peace, each with its capital in Jerusalem."

The statement on Jerusalem has come on the same day the US government officially opened its new embassy in the city following its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticised the relocation, noting the status of Jerusalem should be left to negotiation 16, rather than unilateral action.

"We are confident that one can't revise unilaterally the agreements that were documented by the international community. And these agreements say that all of the final decisions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Jerusalem is one of the most important issues (of this conflict) — can only be decided 17 through a direct dialogue between the Israeli and the Palestinian authorities."

The relocation of the US embassy has prompted Palestinian officials to suggest the US no longer has the ability to be an impartial 18 broker 19 of peace in the region.

Despite this, U.S. President Donald Trump 20 says U.S. remains 21 "fully 7 committed" to pursuing a Mideast peace deal.

"As I said in December, our greatest hope is for peace. The United States remains fully committed to facilitating a lasting 22 peace agreement and we continue to support the status quo at Jerusalem's holy sites including at the Temple Mount, also known as Haram Al- Sharif."

Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv was one of Trump's key campaign promises.

But the move has infuriated the Palestinians, who have intended to make east Jerusalem as the captial of a negotiated two-state solution.

Monday's protests in Gaza mark the biggest showdown in years between Israel's military and Hamas supporters along the volatile 23 border.

While there have been violent protests in the lead-up to Monday's wide-scale demonstration 12, the two sides had largely been observing a cease-fire since the 2014 — their third in a decade.