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Nickolay Mladenov, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, speaks during a press conference in Gaza City, on July 15, 2018. The United Nations special envoy on Sunday called on both Israel and the Palestinians to restore calm in the Gaza Strip following two days of exchange of fire between Hamas and Israel.(Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)
GAZA, July 15 (Xinhua) — The United Nations special envoy on Sunday called on both Israel and the Palestinians to restore calm in the Gaza Strip following two days of exchange of fire between Hamas and Israel.
Nickolay Mladenov, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told a news conference in Gaza that he calls on the Palestinians to maintain peaceful demonstrations and stop firing rockets, mortars and incendiary balloons, adding that “I call on the Israeli snipers to stop targeting children in Gaza.”
The top UN envoy referred to exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Hamas-led militants on Friday and Saturday, where Israeli war jets carried out intensive airstrikes on militants facilities, while militants fired barrages of mortars and rockets into Israel.
“Yesterday, we were on the brink of a real war and there are great efforts to get away from the specter of war because no one wants this confrontation,” said Mladenov, stressing that “calm and ceasefire must be restored in Gaza.”
Releasing arson balloons and kites stated on March 30, when the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip organized rallies and protests called “the Great March of Return” and “Defying the Israeli Siege.” A total of 139 Palestinians have been killed and 16,000 injured since then.
Organizers of the rallies said that their protests won’t stop until the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is improved, as well as lifting the tight blockade Israel has imposed on since 2007.
“The humanitarian problem in Gaza must be solved,” Mladenov said, adding that any effort to ease the hard living situation in Gaza “will be welcomed, mainly when Egypt decided to keep Rafah border crossing with Gaza permanently open.”
Meanwhile, he called on rival Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party to end more than 11 years of internal division that also made the daily life in Gaza very hard.
“Fatah and Hamas should take the Egyptian initiative seriously,” Mladenov said, adding that “the United Nations will not leave Gaza and there must be only one authority in the Palestinian territories instead of having two.”

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