United Nations to meet over protection of Palestinian civilians

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said four council members – Egypt, Senegal, Venezuela and Malaysia – are organising the meeting on May 6 which will hear briefings from a legal scholar, an Amnesty International representative and others.

Last October, the UN sent the Council a study on precedents in addressing the protection of civilians in conflicts around the world.

Mansour told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is a first step toward action that the Security Council must take.

"Our desire is to find any form of protection to protect our people from the brutality of this occupation," he said.

In response to the announcement of the Council meeting, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon claimed that Palestinians continued to "lie to the world" and turn to the international community with "ridiculous claims instead of focusing their efforts on fighting terror and incitement".

The meeting announcement came only one day after Israeli police shot dead two Palestinian siblings at a checkpoint between east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

"They shot the girl first and then the man looked like he didn't know what to do, he tried to go back but they shot him too," one witness told AFP.

Our desire is to find any form of protection to protect our people from the brutality of this occupation. - Riyad Mansour

Other witnesses said that the siblings, identified as 23-year-old Maram Abu Ismail and 16-year-old Ibrahim Salah Taha, posed no threat at the time, despite Israeli claims that the woman was carrying a knife.

"Officers and border policemen at the Qalandia checkpoint saw male and female [Palestinians] walking towards the passage for cars only, with the woman's hand concealed in a purse and the man's hand behind his back holding something," Israeli spokesperson Luba Samri said.

"Police ordered them to stop a number of times without success."

Following the shootings, soldiers threw tear-gas canisters to disperse crowds at the heavily fortified checkpoint on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem.

The incident is the latest in a wave of violence that has killed 203 Palestinians and 28 Israelis since October.

Israel blames the attacks on Palestinian incitement while Palestinians lay the blame on frustration stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli military occupation.