The UN Security Council discusses tensions between Israel and Hamas in the aftermath of bombings that claimed the lives of children and pulverized international media offices in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli strikes continue to fall and bursts of rockets are increasing towards major Israeli cities.

Diplomatic negotiations are intensifying in an attempt to put an end to the violence with a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday, May 16.

Its UN secretary general said he was "appalled" by the "growing number of civilian casualties" and "deeply disturbed" by the Israeli attack on a building housing international media in Gaza. 

Diplomatic negotiations

For his part, US President Joe Biden spoke by telephone on Saturday with Israeli head of government Benjamin Netanyahu and, for the first time since his arrival at the White House, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.    

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on television late in the evening, claiming to have "unequivocal" support from Joe Biden.

The latter has meanwhile supported Israel's right "to defend itself" against Hamas attacks, while expressing concern about "the safety of journalists."

For the first time since arriving at the White House, the Democrat also spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Joe Biden stressed "the need for Hamas to stop firing rockets at Israel".

The US president reiterated "the US commitment to strengthen the partnership" with the Palestinians, recalling the resumption in April of US aid to the Palestinians, interrupted under the presidency of Mr. Trump.

A "negotiated two-state solution" is "the best way to achieve a just and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," added the US president.

A senior US State Department official, Hady Amr, is also due to meet with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday and travel to the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian officials.

A meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is scheduled for the morning and a virtual meeting of the Security Council will take place late Sunday afternoon.

UN N.1 "deeply disturbed"

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, for his part, reacted to the Israeli army airstrikes that demolished the 13-story building on Saturday that houses the offices of the Qatari media Al Jazeera and the American news agency Associated Press (AP ) and killed ten members of two cousin families in a refugee camp in the same Palestinian enclave.

The UN N.1 said he was "appalled" by the "growing number of civilian casualties" and "deeply disturbed" by the Israeli attack on the building housing international media in Gaza.

The Israeli army, which had previously requested the evacuation of the building, claimed that it housed "entities belonging to the military intelligence" of the armed Islamist movement Hamas, which it claims uses civilians as "human shields" in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Secretary General reminded "all parties that any indiscriminate targeting of civil and media structures violates international law and must be avoided at all costs."

"War crime"

The Associated Press management said it was "shocked and horrified" by the Israeli strike.

"We narrowly avoided terrible loss of life," agency boss Gary Pruitt said in a statement.

The head of Al-Jazeera's office in Israel and the Palestinian Territories Walid al-Omari denounced him a "war crime", believing that Israel had "decided not to cause destruction and death, but also to silence those who show it, "he told AFP.

 The strikes continue 

Late in the evening on Saturday, a ten-story building, the al-Andalous Tower, was severely damaged by strikes, AFP journalists in Gaza noted.

Hamas launched a new barrage of rockets at Israeli cities including metropolitan Tel Aviv.

Early Sunday, the IDF said it carried out a strike on Sunday at the home of the head of the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinouar, without specifying whether he was there.

Palestinian armed groups fired at least 2,300 rockets at Israel, killing 10 people, including a child and a soldier, and injuring more than 560 Israelis, according to Israeli authorities.

Israeli air defenses also intercepted numerous rockets. 

The latest toll from Palestinian health officials shows 145 dead, including 41 children and 1,100 injured in the shelling of the Palestinian enclave since Monday.

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