News, Articles & Reviews

United Nations (ANTARA News/AFP) - The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting on the Middle East late Thursday in the wake of the Jerusalem attack which killed eight people, a UN spokeswoman said.

Spokeswoman Marie Okabe said the meeting on the Middle East and the Palestinian question would begin at 7 pm (0000 GMT Friday).

A UN statement meanwhile said UN chief Ban Ki-moon "condemns in the strongest terms today`s savage attack on a Jewish seminary in west Jerusalem, and the deliberate killing and injuring of civilians."

Ban expressed alarm "at the potential for continued acts of violence and terrorism to undermine the political process, which he believes must be pursued to achieve a secure and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians, based on a two-state solution."

Eight students at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in predominantly Jewish west Jerusalem were killed and another nine wounded when a Palestinian from east Jerusalem entered the building and started shooting, Israeli police said.

"The terrorist arrived with a packet in his hand, got out a weapon and started firing, killing eight people and wounding nine others," Aharon Franco, head of Jerusalem district police, told reporters on the scene.

In Beirut, Hezbollah`s television announced that the people behind the attack were members of a previously unknown group called "Phalange of Free Men of Galilee -- Groups of the Martyr Imad Mughnieh and Martyrs of Gaza."(*)

Source