Kuwait calls for protection of Palestinians during emergency UN meeting on Gaza killings

Kuwait will circulate a draft UN proposal calling for the protection of the Palestinian civilians, UN Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi said on Tuesday, following the mass killing of protesters at the Gaza border on Monday.

Otaibi said the draft would be circulated "most probably tomorrow" and would be designed to protect the Palestinians and "provide international protection for civilians".

He spoke moments before the UN Security Council opened an emergency meeting to discuss Israel's mass killing in Gaza which has left at least 61 Palestinians dead, including an eight-month-old baby girl.

The UN Security Council opened its emergency meeting with a minute's silence for the Palestinians killed in Gaza, during thr.

"This cycle of violence in Gaza needs to end," said Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process.

"For if it does not, it will explode and drag everyone in the region into another deadly confrontation," he told the council by video link from Jerusalem.

Belgium has also demanded a UN inquiry to take place to look into the violence in Gaza, and joined other countries in summoning the Israeli ambassador to the foreign ministry.

Brussels foreign ministry said it summoned ambassador Simona Frankel over remarks describing all Palestinian victims as "terrorists", while Prime Minister Charles Michel said, "we call for an international inquiry led by the United Nations".

Both the UK and Germany had called for an independent probe earlier.

Speaking at the emergency meeting, the US ambassador to the UN said Israel had acted with restraint in Gaza, while Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon blamed Palestinian group Hamas for the violence.

The US blocked on Monday a call for an independent inquiry into the Gaza-border violence.

Sixty-two Palestinians were killed on Monday in the deadliest day in the besieged territory since 2014 war. 

Over 2,400 Palestinians were wounded as Israeli snipers continued to fire into the crowds in an attempt to suppress the demonstrations.