Protesters force Gaza UN headquarters to close

Scores of Palestinians held a demonstration outside the United Nations headquarters in Gaza on Monday, calling for international action against the ongoing violations by Israel.

The demonstrations come in light of recent clashes between Israeli military forces and Palestinians in the West Bank, as well as other regions.

At least 69 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli forces since September. Thousands more have been injured.

Calling themselves "Coalition of the Uprising Youth", the protesters carried Palestinian flags and pictures of Palestinians recently killed by Israel in the West Bank, and succeeded in closing down the building.

A spokesman for the coalition, Jamal Yaghi told al-Araby Arabic service that the closure of the United Nations headquarters came as a result of "international silence, concerning extrajudicial executions carried out by the occupation against Palestinian people, under the pretext of security."

He warned that the continuation of Israeli practices against Palestinians will lead to a deterioration in security and that the violence will escalate until international institutions such as the UN and the EU, will be unable to control the situation.

"The activists chose the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration to close the UN headquarters to call for urgent international action to the Palestinian cause," Yaghi said.

The 1917 Balfour declaration was a letter from the then-UK foreign secretary James Balfour stating that the UK supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. 

At the time the UK occupied Palestine under the British Mandate.

Many view the document as a catalyst that lead to the founding of Israel in 1948, and the consequent mass displacement of Palestinians.  

Yaghi added that the protest aimed "to stop the biased policy adopted by the secretary general of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, that justifies the operations and executions carried out by the occupation".

During the protest, activist Fatima Abdullah stressed that the international silence towards the Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinian is the "policy followed since the beginning of the Palestinian revolution", and rejected the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine during the British Mandate.