Tremors in New York interrupted the UN Security Council session on Gaza: this was the moment

He earthquake of magnitude 4.8 on the Richter scale that shook New York City (United States) this Friday morning, and which was felt in many neighborhoods in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, also shook a session held by the UN Security Council about the war in the Gaza Strip and forced the interventions to stop for a few seconds.

The earthquake took place this Friday at 10:23 local time, seven kilometers northeast of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey,” the border state of New York, across the Hudson River, and at a depth of 5 kilometers, according to the United States Geophysics Institute (USGS).

This is how the tremor was experienced in the Assembly

The tremor occurred just as the Security Council was meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York. to address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, which is close to completing six months of war and already exceeds 33,000 deaths.

At the time of the earthquake Janti Soeripto, President and CEO of Save The Children, had the floor. an NGO that works to protect the rights of minors, especially in wars.

Soeripto was describing that there is currently no sanitation in Gaza and denouncing that children can no longer take refuge in schools because 80 percent of educational institutions in the Strip have been destroyed in the midst of the war between Israel and Hamas.

“The community I visited had one bathroom for 69 people. Women line up for three hours to wear it. “Schools, normally a place of protection for children, a place where they can normally have access to humanitarian services…” said Soeripto.

At that moment the earthquake began to be felt. In the clip it is observed that the Save The Children official He remains silent for a couple of seconds and asks the president of the Security Council if he can continue with his intervention.

A few seconds later, before the movement of the Council room, He asks if it is an earthquake. “Education is… Is this an earthquake?” he questions.

To which someone in the room responds that it is indeed an earthquake and makes a joke: “You're making the earth shake.”

After some laughter at the joke, the director asks permission to continue giving her details about the situation in Gaza.

The meeting was suspended for a second time when phones began ringing and vibrating due to automatic emergency alerts sent by the municipality.

The slight earthquake shook the city for several seconds and sparked an avalanche of messages on social media platforms.

New York City residents also received an alert on their cell phones in which they were warned about the need to stay away from windows or heavy appliances and stay indoors.

“If you are indoors, stay there! Get under a desk or table or move toward a hallway or against an interior wall. Stay away from windows, fireplaces, and heavy furniture or appliances,” the statement from the US Geological Center says. United States (USGS, in English), link that was sent in the alert message.

Dominika Uniejewska, a store manager in Lebanon, New Jersey, the epicenter of the earthquake, told AFP that she “was asleep” when the quake hit. She “At first she didn't understand what was happening because she had never experienced such a strong earthquake.”

“The whole house was shaking a lot, the bed was shaking and it was making noise, a very loud noise,” he said.

“I'M FINE,” said the account of the emblematic Empire State Building in X.

The American Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) warned that airports in the Northeast could encounter difficulties, mentioning those in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Maryland.

But New York's JFK airport reported in X that it was still “open and operational” and that “planes are taking off and landing.”

President Joe Biden was informed of the event, according to his spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, and “the White House is in contact with federal and local officials.”

*With AFP and EFE