OTTAWA—Canada used a chance to speak at the United Nations to issue a strong defence of Israel in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and blamed militants in the Gaza Strip for a death toll that has now climbed above 600.

“The indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel are terrorist acts, for which there can be no justification,” Guillermo Rishchynski, Canada’s representative to the UN, said in a debate before the Security Council.

Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, has “sought to deliberately put civilians, from both sides, in mortal danger. We mourn the resulting death and suffering,” Rishchynski said during Canada’s turn in a day of national statements on the Middle East crisis.

“The Israel Defense Forces have continued to demonstrate a commitment to minimize civilian casualties in response to the relentless rocket attacks,” he added. Rishchynski’s comments were in contrast to remarks by a number of countries that expressed dire concerns about the mounting civilian casualties from Israel’s offensive in Gaza and pressed Israel to do more to lessen the carnage.

Rishchynski repeated an earlier call by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for the UN to investigate reports that UN workers in Gaza gave rockets found in one of its empty schools to Hamas.

In a statement, Baird said he was “appalled” by reports of a stockpile of rockets found in a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in Gaza.

“Even more alarming,” Baird said, were reports that UN officials in one instance returned rockets to Hamas, which Canada lists as a terrorist organization, after Israeli officials discovered the location of the weapons.

UNRWA, which provides humanitarian assistance in Gaza, has publicly condemned the placement of rockets in schools in two incidents in the past week and is investigating the use of the schools for weapons storage.

But the agency denied the rockets were given to Hamas, saying they were turned over to the national unity government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

At the UN, Canada called on Abbas to disarm Hamas, eliminate militias and private armies in the coastal enclave and keep smugglers from making military equipment available to militants in Gaza.

Rishchynski said Canada supports efforts by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the United States to de-escalate the conflict and urged militants in Gaza to accept a ceasefire proposal from Egypt and wind down the fighting.

“It is in Hamas’s power to end this conflict, and we call on them to do so immediately,” he said.

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