NEW YORK, January 6, 2009 (WAFA)- Permanent Observer of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations Ambassador Riyad Mansour, said in a letter addressed to the UN that  Israel’s excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force has brutally killed more than 500 Palestinians, including 107 children and 37 women in less than ten days.

In his letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President of the Security Council Jean-Maurice Ripert and President of the General Assembly Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, Ambassador Mansour said that “the tragic and continuous climb in the number of casualties reflects Israel's ongoing bloody onslaught against the Palestinian population in the Occupied Gaza Strip, in complete disregard and violation of all norms and rules of international humanitarian law and human rights law.”

He added that medical sources in Gaza reported that Israeli helicopters deliberately targeted and killed three paramedics as they rushed to rescue a group of Palestinians in Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City. He pointed that many of the injured, now over 2500, have not been able to obtain the urgent medical treatment they need. Medical teams have been unable to access areas to rescue the injured and Gaza hospitals, already dealing with critical shortages of supplies due to 18 month siege on Gaza, have not had the supplies, equipment or capacity to handle the massive number of civilians requiring urgent medical care.

Ambassador Mansour called on the Security Council to fulfill its duties in accordance with the UN Charter and take concrete measures to end Israeli aggression saying that the international community “cannot allow the occupying Power to continue to act with such flagrant impunity and disrespect for the law, which has resulted in the tragic death and suffering among the defenseless Palestinian civilian population.”