Palestinian officials have launched an unprecedented attack against the US permanent representative to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, accusing her of “lying and falsifying facts.” The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Ambassador Riad Mansour, told the press at the UN headquarters in New York: “The statement that Haley delivered in the UN Security Council room… lacked credibility and created a wave of great discontent among the Palestinians.” He added: “Nikki Haley did not mention a single word regarding the suffering and death inflicted by the children and the Palestinian people at the hands of the occupation forces; if her words are true about Hamas using children as human shields, she must agree to form a fact-finding committee to know who is the offender and who is the victim.” As for his country’s options in the current situation, Mansour pointed out that these would include resorting to the UN General Assembly or the International Criminal Court, without elaborating. On Friday, Mansour revealed that he sent three separate letters to UN Security Council President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, which included data on the number of people killed and the new Palestinian casualties by Israeli fire in Gaza. Israel killed 44 Palestinians up to Friday and wounded some 5,000 during Palestinian demonstrations near the Gaza border. However, Haley accused Hamas of “using children as cannon fodder.” “Anyone who truly cares about children in Gaza should insist that Hamas immediately stop using children as cannon fodder in its conflict with Israel,” she said at the Security Council. Palestinian and Israeli medical and rights reports have shown excessive use of fire by Israeli forces against isolated demonstrators, deliberately killing or damaging their bodies. In specific cases, the Israeli forces opened an investigation.