15 July 2018•Update: 15 July 2018
By Nour Abu Aisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine
UN peace envoy Nikolay Mladenov on Sunday called on the Palestinian factions in the Gaza strip and the Israeli side to retreat from “the brink of a real war“ and to stop current escalation.
In a press conference he held in the Palestinian Gaza strip in which he arrived earlier Sunday, Mladenov stressed that "the United Nations will not leave Gaza,” and will increase its presence inside it to be more effective in providing the Palestinians with aids.
"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," Mladenov said, adding that, "calm and cease-fire must be restored in Gaza."
The UN envoy called on the Palestinian people to keep the demonstrations on the border peaceful.
He also called on the Palestinian factions to prevent what he considered as provocations.
Mladenov called for stopping launching rockets, mortar shells and incendiary kites.
"I call on the Israeli snipers to stop targeting children in Gaza," he added.
The UN envoy arrived in the Gaza Strip earlier on Sunday amid tension in the Palestinian territory.
The envoy’s visit came hours after Palestinian resistance factions and Israel reached an Egyptian-sponsored cease-fire deal to ease tension in the seaside enclave.
On Saturday, two Palestinians were martyred and dozens injured in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which the Israeli army said were in response to a volley of rockets fired from the strip into southern Israel.
Since March, more than 130 people have been martyred and thousands more injured by Israeli army fire during Palestinian protests against the decades-long Israeli occupation and 11-year blockade, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of basic commodities.
