Following the tragic airstrike the Israeli military performed two days ago in Beit Hanoun, which ultimately killed 18 Palestinian civilians, deemed afterwards as a potential "technical failure", given that the intended targets were missed by 500 meters, Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour blamed Israel for performing what he labeled as "state terrorism" against the Palestinian territories, Reuters informs. He also added that the apologies and regret expressed by Israeli officials were dishonest and were not going to be believed anymore.

"This is terrorism, this is state terrorism. These are war crimes for which the perpetrators must be held accountable under international law", Mansour was quoted by Reuters as stressing during a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting. He added that the continuous killings in the Gaza Strip made "death, mourning and grief a near-daily ritual for the people of Gaza".

The meeting was requested by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Arab League and 116-member Non-Aligned Movement after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the dramatic incident a "technical failure", yet the Palestinians viewed it as carnage. The three international Muslim bodies urged the Security Council to speedily adopt a resolution that would call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, plus a United Nations peacekeeping contingent that would ensure the implementation of the provisions of such a resolution, a measure that highly resembles the one adopted in Lebanon following the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

However, the members of the Security Council disagreed with regard to exact formulation of the draft resolution text, highlighting that it needs massive changes and rewriting, which would constitute the main topics of discussion on Friday. A vote on the resolution is possible next week.

As far as United States is concerned, UN officials expressed their belief that the country would likely veto the resolution, given that it is Israel's closest political ally, plus it usually opposes any military intervention in the Middle East conflict, since it deems it as totally inefficient. This view was reiterated by the spokesman for the US State Department, Sean McCormack, who agreed that "people want to talk about in the Security Council, although the Security Council is not traditionally the forum where Israeli-Palestinian issues are resolved". However, he stressed upon the fact that "we don't think that any sort of one-sided resolutions are really the most productive way to address this issue".