New York - The United States on Thursday accused Libya of taking a position that was "morally outrageous" by accusing Israel of maintaining a Holocaust-type camp in Gaza Strip.

The Libyan envoy said during a Wednesday night meeting of the UN Security Council that the situation for Palestinians in Gaza was comparable to a "concentration camp under Nazi Germany," US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff reported.

"We walked out and left," Wolff told reporters who asked him about the incident. The US, British and Belgian envoys left the room in a rare diplomatic outburst as the
15-nation council was trying to issue a statement on the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

"We can deal with it comprehensively, honestly, constructively or we can be selective about it, and that's happening here," Wolff said. "The Libyan delegate has been tendentious, selective and historically incorrect and morally outrageous."

Wolff stressed that Israel had left Gaza, which is now under the control of militant Hamas.

"The camp is in an Arab country," Wolff said.

Libyan Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi, who has angered council members since his country was selected to the council in January, proposed including the word "holocaust" in the statement to describe the situation in Gaza. At that point the Western delegates walked out and the proposed draft statement was shelved.

The council met on Wednesday to hear a monthly report from the UN about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was described as grim. The report said the fighting in the past month between the two sides had been tense, resulting in a total of 69 Palestinians killed, including 15 children, by attacks from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Attacks by Palestinian militants killed six Israelis and injured 17 others.

The UN has been condemning attacks on the civilians by the IDF as well as rocket attacks into Israel by Palestinian militants.

"We are deeply alarmed at prospects of further intensification of the violence, given the terrible implications for civilians and the threat against security of all parties - the Palestinians, Israel and Egypt," said UN Assistant Secretary General Angela Kane. (dpa)