The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon in an open session over the clashes between Israel and the Palestinian militants, the council president told reporters here Tuesday. "We have several hours of consultations today, and what we have agreed to is that there will be an open meeting of the council tomorrow at 1500 hours," Hardeep Singh Puri, the Indian UN ambassador who holds the rotating council presidency for November, said after the closed council meeting which started at around 6:00 p.m.(2300GMT) on Tuesday. "Naturally, we are closely following the developments in Cairo," he said. "As you know, there is expectation that there will be an announcement of the cessation of hostilities." "If there is such an agreement, and the information becomes available by tomorrow morning, clearly, the need for that meeting may have to be reassessed," he said. "But so far, based on the discussions we have (today), the decision is that we meet in an open session at 1500 hours tomorrow afternoon." In Cairo, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi "hopes" a ceasefire in Gaza will soon be reached, an Egyptian official said on Tuesday. The council's Tuesday discussions came after the United States decided to block a draft statement of the UN Security Council which is aimed at calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian militants over Gaza. "The draft statement failed to address the root cause of the current escalation -- the continuing barrage of rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel," Erin Pelton, spokesman for the U.S. Mission, said in a statement on Tuesday. Vitaly Churkin, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, on Monday accused the United States of seeking to "filibuster" the 15-nation council's efforts to seek an early end to the recently escalated lethal clashes between Israel and Hamas. The draft statement was circulated last Thursday by Morocco, the only representative of the Arab countries on the Security Council, to call for a halt to the Israel-Hamas hostilities. The adoption of the press statement requires consensus among all the council members. Earlier on Tuesday, Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, said in a letter to the Security Council that more than 140 people have been killed and more than 950 others injured in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Mansour said that those killed include "many children" as the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza entered its seventh day on Tuesday. Five Israelis have been reported killed by rockets fired from Gaza over the week. International pressure is being added to push for the Gaza truce as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is visiting the Middle East as part of the world efforts to bring an early end to the cross-border clashes. Mansour told reporters here Tuesday that the Security Council should "shoulder its responsibility." Under the UN Charter, the Security Council has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. "And if there is no stoppage of this aggression against our people at any moment during the night or at earliest possible, then there is no way but for the SC to shoulder its responsibility and to convene this meeting and to adopt whatever measures they can in order to stop this aggression against our people," Mansour said. "We will not rest for a moment until the Security Council and the entire international community succeed in bringing this aggression to an end and that is the business of the Security Council and the business of all of us," he said. Mansour said that Wednesday's open council meeting is the result of continuous lobbying efforts. "Since the Security Council did not adopt a position in the morning, we are continuing this effort and it seems that finally the Security Council agreed to this request," he said. Xinhuanet
