UNITED NATIONS, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations (UN), on Friday asked the Security Council to stop Israeli violence against Palestinians after at least 15 Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli soldiers on the border fence in Gaza.

"We expect the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility because the situation ... in Gaza is a threat to international peace and security," Mansour told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York as the council was holding an emergency meeting over the situation in Gaza.

"It is the responsibility of the Security Council to condemn this atrocity against our people, to stop it immediately and to deal with the issue of bringing those who are responsible to justice," said the diplomat.

He also asked the council to seriously consider the issue of providing international protection to civilians in Gaza.

On Friday, thousands of Palestinians started the first day of the Great March of Return, a month-long sit-in staged along the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel to demand the return of Palestinian refugees who were forced to leave their cities during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948.

Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United Nations Mansour Al-Otaibi, whose delegation requested the emergency meeting of the Security Council, also demanded action from the Security Council to stop Israeli violence in Gaza.

"We would ask the council to take action," Al-Otaibi told reporters before attending the emergency meeting in the form of closed-door consultations.

Carl Skau, Swedish Alternate Representative to the Security Council, said Friday that the use of force must be proportionate. He said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is terrible, calling for an end to the closure of the strip.