the efforts of russia's leadership and of its diplomacy are aimed at achieving that goal practical steps to end the conflict were the subject of a targeted discussion during the un secretary general mr terry visit to moscow as well as during numerous ongoing high level contacts with regional and international partners this new escalation of the situation. was a combination of factors they mean one being the absence of a direct negotiation process just for such negotiations that palestinians and israelis are meant to work out solutions to all fundamental final status issues in the meantime it is necessary to strictly respect the status quo of the holy sites to ensure their rights and freedom of worship 1st to engage in religious observances in east jerusalem and the cradle of 3 monotheistic religions and to take into account the highly sensitive nature of this problem in that regard we consider the attempts to change the geographical demographic and historical

character and status of east jerusalem to be no envoy to this new cycle of the crisis proves that the normalization of israel's relations with arab states as beneficial as it may be is not capable of leading to a contest hence of stabilization of the situation in the middle east if the palestinian israeli question is ignored. the priority now is to cease fire and to stop the bloodshed we call on the parties to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law to prevent harm to the civilian population and to infrastructure used by journalists and the media. the issue of. protecting medical personnel deserves particular attention but we underscore that there is no alternative to a political settlement of existing disputes the parties must recognize their

responsibility for the fate of millions of israelis and palestinians and for preserving national unity. appropriate conditions must be established as soon as possible. for relaunching a peaceful palestinian israeli dialogue on the basis of all known decisions of the security council and the un general assembly and the principle of 2 states palestine and israel living side by side in peace and security. this requires a rejection of any unilateral steps including settlement activity destruction of palestinian homes eviction of the care of the arab population from their ancestral home provocations and incitement to violence the practice of creating irreversible developments on the ground must must stop so that this does not prejudge a final solution russia strongly reaffirms the above mentioned international legal

framework that. meets the legitimate aspirations of the palestinian people for their own independent state and israel's legitimate interests in ensuring its security. in the interest of deescalating the situation and instilling an atmosphere of trust we believe it is important to urgently hold a meeting of the middle east quartet of international mediators at the ministerial level to ensure coordination between the quartet and key regional players we also propose convening a ministerial meeting in an expanded format with the involvement of the leading states of the region. our proposal to organize contacts between the heads of israel and palestine in moscow remains in force. another components of the palestinian israeli settlement process is overcoming the split and palestinian ranks the russian federation in cooperation with the leadership of egypt and other

stakeholders will continue to provide assistance to post any and political forces in order to restore national unity on the basis of the palestinian palestine liberation organization platform so moscow believes that it is important for the un security council to provide a concerted response to the current severe crisis there is a basis for this all members of the security council. as we have seen today are advocating in favor of ending the armed confrontation confrontation they are united with respect to the need to strictly observe international humanitarian law as well as the inadmissibility of harm to civilians all security council members are in favor of relaunching the political process between palestinians and israelis and achieving a 2 state solution we also believe that a direct dialogue between the parties should be carried out with the activists distance of the international quartet of mediators as the only internationally

recognized mechanism for supporting the palestinian israeli peace process thank you for your attention. russia's envoy to the united nations. richard taking us through and the various delegates and ambassadors and foreign ministers you've been talking to this open session they did have 2 closed door sessions earlier in the week they there were calls for a 3rd session the united states didn't like that but ended up doing something every new turn and saying yes you can do it let's talk to kristen salumi our correspondent following that so kristen just listening to 1st off the u.s. ambassador to the united nations it was clearly the ambassador talking sounded a lot like mr biden however.

indeed although she took great pains to point out the suffering that's happening on both sides of this conflict this is the 3rd meeting that the security council has had in just 6 days is the 1st open meeting and the 1st chance for all countries to put their views on the table formally in this international setting. so far the united states have been resistant to that this is the 1st time that the council was able to come together because of u.s. resistance and we heard linda thomas greenfield who also is a member of biden's cabinet mentioned echoing some of his talking points she talked about the human toll of this conflict and the. i think sought to bolster the reputation of the united states here which has been taking some heads as being the ones who have been blocking international action

pointing out that the u.s. has been very engaged with regional partners she pointed out that mr biden spoke to both the israeli and palestinian leaders in the last 24 hours as well as leaders from other countries in the region that they feel can help. however you know not a lot of indication that the u.s. was ready to take any further action in the security council and terms of a statement even we know other council members have wanted to issue in a unified statement the chinese ambassador earlier called out the united states directly for that. calling and the united states i think i'm looking for a remark here that she made. when she was talking about what the united states is willing to do she said the u.s. has made clear that we're prepared to lend our support in good offices should the parties seek a ceasefire so whereas other ambassadors have talked about coming back to the table

for peace negotiations coming back to the table to work on that 2 state solution. less of that kind of talk more of a focus just on the violence and what's happening right now she did though call on all parties to avoid actions that undermine a peaceful future including avoiding incitement violent attacks terrorist acts as well as even action so a rare point of criticism from the united states there against the israeli proposed evictions in east jerusalem. she didn't speak directly to shake but did seem to give a nod and a wink that this is something that shouldn't happen under international law either and. should be avoided again will the u.s. support any further action from the security council it looks like from what we're

hearing now christine just to pick up on that point that you were talking there about what the ambassador was saying what will take the sun but at the palestinian foreign minister in just a 2nd but you were saying the u.s. ambassador in effect sounds as if the u.s. is trying to push this into the into the abstract here instead of saying both sides you've got to step back from this you must stop this conflict instead of the saying look if you start getting into a situation where you might actually want to talk to each other we'll be here to hold your hands take you through the process i mean what she actually discussing there. she did call for an end to violence and as a station of hostilities in and and so on but a very cautious approach we know that the administration has taken. taken the approach that this is a. i had wanted to put the conflict to the side given it is such a difficult intractable some would say situation it was not one that they wanted to

wade into and we're seeing that play out here at the united nations that they are reluctant to spend too much political capital on this issue. just getting them to speak publicly about it was to pressure of all other u.n. security council members they wanted to have this meeting on friday when things were heating up the u.s. said well let's wait let's let's you know let's work behind the scenes and see if with we can let work towards an end to the violence that way but things only got worse so then they had to come here and make some acknowledgment of the situation but they they seem unwilling to go farther ok christine let's take a listen to that sound bite from the palestinian foreign minister. israel is killing palestinians in gaza one family at the time israel is trying to uproot palestinians from euro zone an expanding family is one home one

neighborhood at a time israelis but think you think of our people committing war crimes and crimes against humanity some may not want to use these words war crimes and crimes against humanity but then nor they are true and here's what the israeli un ambassador had to say millions of israeli children women and men have been huddling in bomb shelters while thousands of hamas rockets landed all around them what would you do if thousands of terrorist rockets were being fired at your country it's your people your parents or children i would you respond even though if an organization with a similar fanatic jihad this ideology as isis was bumbling be jean or

moscow or dublin and kristin listening as well as i know you were to the russian envoy the russians kind of mirroring what was going on yesterday talking about the quartet the quartet along with what the jordanians were talking about when their delegate was talking to the meeting of the united nations he was talking about the 2 state solution saying we don't have to i'm going to repeat myself here we don't have to reinvent the wheel people focusing in on the mechanisms and the structures that perhaps the outside world has lost sight of but those mechanisms and structures when it comes to solving this big issue they've been there for decades now already. well. you're right this is one of the longest conflicts on the agenda of the security council if not the longest. on the agenda of the security council it spends 70 plus years that palestinians have been living under occupation and their situation has

not improved you could argue if anything it's gotten worse and you saw the israeli ambassador there speaking passionately about children under attack in israel what would you do he says in that situation and comparing and talking about the palestinians not as a people as a whole but talking about hamas the radical jihadi ideology that he compares to eisele or al qaeda he didn't use al-qaeda in this case but appealing to people on that level of fear or from terrorism which everyone can relate to but the palestinians on their side when we heard from that foreign minister riad malki talking about what opportunity do we have what tools do we have at our disposal and pointing out that they have very little you know he talked about the tools of

the international community whether it be sending troops to. having sanctions on one party or another that doesn't in this case and with with israel they're referring to even extends and so on and you know there's sanctions you could and relations with them but of course the united states certainly has not shown any willingness to do that and because of that the security council has not been even even able to make a unified statement so where does that leave the palestinians that leaves them very much an underdog and in a power struggle very they. there though they have nothing to bring to the table against israel in a situation like that without international backing i think is what the argument they're trying to say we we are the underdogs here we have nothing we need your help and we can't we can't do anything else without you when you're not willing to

help us so what do you know he actually asked the question what can we you know what are you going to deal what do you expect us to do ok kristin many thanks kristen salumi our correspondent there reporting live from the united nations in new york there have been developments in the past couple of hours at shake job our correspondent ari force it is there harry just explain to us what happened. in a moment. but what you're seeing behind us here is a checkpoint put up by the israeli security forces at the entrance to the road which has been at the heart of the demonstrations the tensions over the potential forcible evacuations or other forcing out of palestinian homeowners here in occupied east jerusalem what happened a little earlier just after 3 o'clock in the afternoon local time was a vehicle drove into that checkpoint at high speed and crashed into 6 border force the israeli police saying that 6 of those people were injured 4 of them

lightly 2 of them moderately and the driver was shot dead now this is the scene of a lot of the tension and it has been fueling these simmering tensions throughout the month of ramadan and beyond we saw those erupt into violence in jerusalem last monday and now the violence that we're seeing throughout in gaza and across israel and still here in occupied east jerusalem as well the police have been here investigating the scene of the crime that the scene of the incident they've been taking away the vehicle for further investigation it is now relatively calm but we're. arrived here the security forces here were on extreme edge there were stun grenades being thrown around people being dispersed we ourselves pushed away at high speed by some very worried looking security forces so it's another violent

incident here in shakespeare or which as i say has been very much at the focal point of a lot of the process a lot of attention and all of the issues at stake in what we've seen in the last few weeks and just to be clear. that's one of those or it has been over the past what 5 weeks it was the the crucible of the tensions arguably the one of the main warning signals that everyone seemed to not be aware of that there was trouble coming going back to the very beginning of ramadan and that's what 5 weeks ago now . indeed and it's certainly one of the that the crucibles the other one is what took place in the 1st week of ramadan when security forces barred people literally from gathering at damascus gate on the steps there which is a sort of main public square main public space in occupied east jerusalem where normally during ramadan people would gather after prayers at night time they were prevented from doing so there was

a big protest base excessively got that police decision reversed which a lot of people already criticize on the israeli side as well as the palestinian side and that seemed to give greater impetus to what had already been going on here in parallel these 4 families at imminent risk of being under israeli law evicted under international law it would have been something more akin to a forcible displacement that's what the families argue they managed to get an extra hearing at these ready supreme court so a minus day before they were thrown out of their homes these protests intensified and then we saw the eruption at oxon and now the current. conflagration between hamas and israel the military escalation that we've been watching there's been more on that front to further rocket attacks inside israel in ashkelon those an impact with several cars destroyed there was also an impact on the beach you know stored

and we've also heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying that they are that their military action is justified that it will continue although he has given in to interview to american c.b.s. news in which he said that he hoped it could come to an end soon so perhaps that's the 1st indication that gives some solidity to the reporting of efforts towards a cease fire with egyptian mediation harry as ever for the moment thanks very much ari force of their reporting live from occupied east jerusalem al jazeera stuff what joins us live from gaza. just get us right up to date what's the latest information you have for us now as you're talking to us i think we have some live shots of the gaza skyline which we're going to play out as well. you know the skyline that you are you can see now is. some rockets have been fired from gaza to work for that and were intercepted by. them system few seconds ago there was

a huge blast that shake gaza city we know we have not received more information yet but we are still checking. so the rocket firing the israeli air strikes have not stopped yet we don't see any lower scale of fire from either side still cutting out their attacks in response we see the palestinian fighting groups that are spawning until even few minutes ago back here to what the gazans prefer to call it the quick in a what neighborhood. teams and medical teams they pulled 42 bodies. most of them of one family tens of other injures weird were being corrected the hospital the hospital just a few meters from here it's not. the road stuck leads from here to the hospital it's totally destroyed you have to. take

a turn out of roads 30 to the hospital since this road and many other similar important and central roads have been also destroyed chief hospital which is next he had said told us that the number of people killed in the 7 days of israeli offensive is now $192.00 people including $52.00 children. they talk about more than a 1200 people injured in 7 days of israel escalation egypt cut open the borders they they've got the appeal of the minister of health and they open the border exceptionally they are sending abilities to gaza picking up the injured from gaza to treat them in a largish another development the united nations said dock. $38000.00 palestinians are now taking from you on schools are shelters since they have.

to evacuate from there is it eventually areas across the border the line between gaza and israel because of the heavy of bombardment from either from the sky or from from the land and sometimes from the sea. thousands of people now are staying and you until 3rd is still under water is discussing. that they will provide humanitarian aid to them myself i have been receiving many phone calls from friends from. they have been asking me all the time is there any positive indication of a ceasefire agreement i unfortunately we. don't have any concrete on site for them because all the efforts so far either either by egypt or by others. not showing positive indications of reaching. even at them put out a cease fire the last one was there any indication which is pretty bloody and god

almost is chasing and following those that are really new and so the last indications that came from days that are really media is that israeli government approved continue the. israeli. just to be clear what you're talking there about 38000 palestinians in gaza who've got no place to live so they're they've now turned to the united nations force on the ground and they say you're saying they've crossed the border into israeli territory because that's where they have to be looked after by. the the 38000 policy and they live near the border that it's across the border the line between god's law is that i doubt inside gaza but live near the border that so most of the people who live and i have some some reluctance also living there they from the 1st time they started to evacuate their residential areas heading towards the

center of gaza because it's a bit say voted on. staying there is additional area under the is there a nonstop or continuous. sky bombardment so they are gazans and they live in the palestinian side of the gaza over the border because of the intensifier across the border as they had over there were forced to leave evacuate their homes and stay in you and schools ok thanks for that particular issue stuff once. joining us live from gaza let's go back to the united nations in new york a correspondent there is kristen salumi so kristin this open session is still ongoing who will be listening for now. well we just heard from the mexican ambassador and we're waiting to hear from the u.k. ambassador. kenya is speaking right now this is the 1st chance

that all of these countries have had to weigh in on the escalating violence in the region and many are taking the opportunity many have sent foreign ministers here so they are participating virtually but in some cases high levels of government a sign of just how concerned many council members have been about the situation and i don't know if you can see in the screen behind me which shows the outside of the united nations building you see it's a sunday a weekend here in new york the flags are not flying everything looks very quiet it looks like there's not a lot going on from outside of the united nations and certainly not a lot happening inside the building but i can tell you that in the last week there have been intense negotiations among security council members worried about the situation on the ground in the middle east and the escalating tensions that started

back with the. potential eviction of palestinians from east jerusalem neighborhood the storming of the mosque the intercommunal violence i mean you name it every step of the way they have been watching and worrying and meeting behind closed doors today we're having again this 1st public meeting where we are hearing more condemnations of violence and more calls from people to come back to a 2 state solution. the problem for some though is that it's all talk and we are not yet expecting any actual action in terms of even just a statement of unity from the council that would show that there is unity on a way. forward we heard from the chinese ambassador i'm sorry the chinese foreign minister who is chairing the meeting in his capacity as president of the council

and he called out the united states for blocking even a statement on this issue the u.s. for its part defending itself saying that it was working behind the scenes with partners in the region towards a cease fire and willing to help if the parties decide to move in that direction the delegates have been talking for all an hour and 20 minutes maybe an hour and a half or so kristen if you will monitoring this not you or me i mean but if one were monitoring this from jerusalem or from gaza if one was a member of hamas listening to this if one was a member of the israeli military listening to this what do you think the takeaway points are from the delegates we've listened to up to now. well it's actually been 2 hours and 20 minutes. i know time flies quickly when you're on the air and i think we've heard it from our guests on the show

from the palestinian territories throughout the day and throughout kristin i'm going to stop you there which i apologize let's listen in to the ukase week representative to the u.n. and the occupied palestinian territories i've experienced for several years i repeat i repeat my prime minister's call osho i must step back from the brink and show restraint this cycle of violence must. u.k. overthrows r.j. christian jordan says to the families of those civilians killed each one of those deaths is a tragedy. mr president we're deeply concerned that the current trajectory in gaza well only lead to further violence and civilian casualties we want to see an urgent cessation of hostilities and

can restore what. we value the continued u.n. egyptian and get tidy efforts to broker a cease fire and improve the humanitarian situation we urge the parties to work with mediators to cease hostilities and prevent further humanitarian impact let me be unequivocal mr president the u.k. condemns the firing of rockets at civilian populations. there is no justification for targeting civilians the death toll seen in the last week is unacceptable and the images we have all seen are truly harrowing. we strongly condemn these acts of terrorism from hamas and other terrorist groups who must permanently

and their incitement and rocket fire against israel and israeli civilians. israel has a legitimate right to self-defense and the right to defend its citizens from attack in doing so it is vital that israel makes every effort to avoid civilian casualties. we are gravely concerned by u.n. reports that medical installations 23 schools over 500 houses in gaza and buildings housing media organizations have been destroyed or seriously damaged israel's actions must be proportionate and in line with international humanitarian law.