RABAT, September 3. /TASS/. Algeria has called for the urgent convening of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip amid new Israeli raids in the enclave and the West Bank, the country’s radio said.

The Algerian authorities have pointed to "the continuing genocide of the Gaza’s population by the Zionist occupation regime (the Israeli army - TASS) and the cruel operations in the West Bank."

According to the country's diplomats, Israeli soldiers have killed up to 700 people, including more than 150 children, in the West Bank since October 2023.

Algeria believes that at the upcoming UN Security Council meeting, scheduled for the end of this week, the sides must "reaffirm their support for the immediate ceasefire in Gaza and their commitment to a two-state solution as the only option for achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

In addition, Algeria also called on the UN Security Council to "express its disagreement with the policies of the Zionist occupation authorities (Israel - TASS), which aim to undermine any hope for the creation of a Palestinian state and ignore the historical rights of the Palestinian people."

Solidarity with Palestine

Algeria is now a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, and as such is paying increased attention to the situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict zone. The country has repeatedly condemned Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip and expressed its solidarity with the Palestinian people. Algeria is also sending humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.

According to the enclave’s Health Minister, the Israeli army has killed more than 40,800 people, mostly women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.