GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States on Monday led a moment of silence at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to commemorate the lives of people killed in the major Hamas attack on Israel.
“The United States unequivocally condemns these heinous acts of terrorism,” Michele Taylor, U.S. Permanent Representative to the council, told the U.N.’s top human rights body.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families affected and express our solidarity with the people and government of Israel in these trying times.”
At a meeting of the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva, the U.S. envoy also requested a minute of silence to honour victims of the conflict in Israel and of an earthquake in Afghanistan. All but a handful of delegates stood up.
Hamas gunmen burst across the fence from Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 700 people and taking dozens hostage back to the coastal enclave ruled by the Islamist group.
Israel responded with its heaviest ever bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 400 people, and could be contemplating a ground assault on the territory it withdrew from nearly two decades ago after 38 years of occupation.
The Israeli military said on Monday its forces had re-established control of communities near Gaza that had been overrun in a mass Hamas infiltration, but isolated clashes continued as some Palestinian gunmen remained active.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; additional reporting by Emma Farge; editing by Mark Heinrich)
