MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil requests new UN Security Council meeting to assess crisis between Israel and Palestine

Vieira postponed his Southeast Asia trip to attend the UN meeting

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira was on his way to New York Wednesday to participate in the United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting, where the situation between Israel and Palestine is to be discussed, Agencia Brasil reported Wednesday

Vieira, who was on an official trip in Cambodia and was due to travel from there to the Philippines, postponed his Southeast Asia tour to attend the emergency gathering, given that Brazil chairs the Security Council throughout October and has the prerogative to convene meetings of the collegiate body.

It will be the second UN Security Council meeting to discuss the new conflict after convening behind closed doors during the weekend. On that occasion, Brazil was represented by its ambassador to the UN, Sergio Danese.

Itamaraty insisted on its commitment to the two-state solution, with Palestine and Israel living together in peace and security, within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders.

Earlier Wednesday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched an appeal to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the international community in defense of Palestinian and Israeli children as the conflict moves into the Gaza Strip, where the Health Ministry said Israel's retaliatory air strikes had claimed the lives of at least 830 people and injured more than 4,300 as of Tuesday.

The UN said that more than 180,000 Gazans were left homeless, many of them huddled in the streets or in schools. In addition, at least 11 employees of the organization have died in Gaza in recent days as a result of Israeli attacks.