United Nations, NOV. 10, SPA -- The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on Thursday regarding the deaths of 18 civilians Wednesday in Beit Hanoun, Gaza. Council members, regional organizations, and Arab states forcefully protested what they said was excessive violence by Israel’s military.“Israel, through the massacres that it perpetrated through the Gaza Strip, emphasizes its bloody and inhuman approach,” said Saudi Ambassador Fawzi Shobokshi, one of nearly 40 speakers who condemned the Israeli shelling of a house in Beit Hanoun. “This barbaric Israeli attack cannot be justified as self-defense. … This is unjustified revenge.”Council members held closed consultations on the draft resolution circulated by the Qatari ambassador on Wednesday before the open meeting Thursday that included a briefing by U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Angela Kane. Kane noted that Secretary-General Kofi Annan had received assurances from Israeli Prime Minister Olmert last weekend that no military operations would be launched. “While this incident is unusual in scale, … it is not the first time that an Israeli military operation in the occupied Palestinian territory has resulted in a high number of civilian casualties,” she said. Kane said the United Nations welcomed the Israeli investigation into the incident, which would give Israel the opportunity to reflect “on the policy of military pressure as a whole, which is quite clearly not producing the desired goals of stopping rocket attacks.” She also called on Palestinian militants to halt all rocket attacks and to devote energies into bringing about a national unity government. According to Kane, between November 1 and November 8, 82 Palestinians were killed and 260 were injured during the operations in Gaza, while 35 Qassam rockets from Palestinian militants detonated in Israel, where four people were injured.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/401971