International Community Condemns Gaza Rocket Attacks

The international community reacted to the rocket attacks on Israel by Gazan terrorists on Tuesday with a round of condemnations.

President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, denounced the attacks: “Reprehensible – mortars fired from Gaza at a kindergarten and community in Israel! Hamas has failed – all it can offer is terror. Palestinians in Gaza need real leaders to work on Gaza’s real problems with its water, its economy and so much more.”

From the European Union and the United Nations, the comments were somewhat more muted but nonetheless unequivocal.

The EU’s ambassador to Israel, Emanuele Giaufret tweeted: “As kids were preparing for school this morning a barrage of rockets from Gaza fell on southern Israel. One landed outside a kindergarten. I know the resilience of communities in southern Israel but indiscriminate attacks are totally unacceptable and to be condemned unreservedly.”

Nikolay Mladenov, U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned by the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from Gaza towards communities in Southern Israel, at least one of which hit in the immediate vicinity of a kindergarten and could have killed or injured children.”

“Such attacks are unacceptable and undermine the serious efforts by the international community to improve the situation in Gaza,” the U.N. envoy added. “All parties must exercise restraint, avoid escalation and prevent incidents that jeopardize the lives of Palestinians and Israelis.”

The French embassy in Tel Aviv released a statement in Hebrew saying Paris “roundly condemns” targeting civilians and “is unconditionally committed to Israel’s security.”

The statement called the violence “inconsistent with a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”