**UN Security Council Hears Harsh Criticism of Israel's Gaza Offensive

The U.N. Security Council has held an emergency meeting to hear criticism of the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian representative charged Israel with using the capture of an Israeli soldier as a pretext for a long-planned military offensive.

The chief of the Palestinian observer mission at the U.N. Friday described the Israeli operation in Gaza as "flagrant military aggression". In a sharply worded address to the Security Council, Ambassador Riyad Mansour charged that the military offensive was premeditated, and aimed at sabotaging Palestinian unity. "Well prior to the capture of the Israeli soldier on the 25th of June from a military outpost on the Gaza border, Israel, the occupying power, has been issuing a series of threats and declarations about the intention to launch a major invasion of the Gaza Strip," he said.

Mansour urged the Council to condemn the Israeli operation, order an immediate end to hostilities, take action to protect civilians, and demand the release of Palestinian officials detained by Israel.
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