The White House staunchly defended Israel’s actions, while several nations condemned them, but much of the official reaction around the world was more muted, voicing horror at the bloodshed but not assigning blame.

“I am profoundly alarmed and concerned by the sharp escalation of violence and the number of Palestinians killed and injured in the Gaza protests,” António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said in a statement on Tuesday. “It is imperative that everyone shows the utmost restraint to avoid further loss of life.”

South Africa and Turkey recalled their ambassadors to Israel in protest, and Turkey also withdrew its ambassador to the United States. On Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador, Eitan Na’eh, and “notified him that it would be appropriate for him to return to his country for a while,” Hami Aksoy, a ministry spokesman, said.

The government of Saudi Arabia, whose icy relations with Israel have thawed in recent years, issued “strong condemnation and denunciation of the deadly targeting of unarmed Palestinians by the Israeli Forces of Occupation,” according to the official news agency S.P.A.

Among major Western powers, there was much criticism of the relocation of the American Embassy, but only President Emmanuel Macron of France directly assailed Israel’s actions.

The Trump administration echoed the Israeli position. “The responsibility for these tragic deaths rests squarely with Hamas,” Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Monday.

At the U.N., diplomats trade angry talk but take no action.

At the U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday, the ambassador from Kuwait — the only Arab nation currently on the council — denounced what he called “a massacre perpetrated by the Israeli authorities.”

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Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi also criticized the Security Council for not agreeing to Kuwait’s request for an independent investigation of the Gaza deaths, adding that his country might instead seek an investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Office. Diplomats said that Kuwait had circulated a statement calling for an independent inquiry, which would require unanimous approval, but the United States had disagreed.

Defending Israel, Ambassador Nikki R. Haley of the United States denounced what she called the double standard that other nations applied to Israel. “Who among us would accept this type of activity on your border?” she asked. No country, she said, acted “with more restraint than Israel.”

She said that Hamas had been to blame for inciting protesters to storm the fence, and insisted that there had been no connection between the violence and celebrations on Monday for the opening of the American embassy. President Trump’s recognition of the Israeli position that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, she said, “makes peace more achievable, not less.”

Addressing the council, Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for Middle East peace, found fault with both sides.

“Israel has a responsibility to calibrate its use of force, to not use lethal force, except as a last resort, under imminent threat of death or serious injury,” he said. He added that Hamas “must not use the protests as cover to attempt to place bombs at the fence and create provocations; its operatives must not hide among the demonstrators and risk the lives of civilians.”

Lebanon is also the site of a Palestinian demonstration.

Thousands of Palestinian refugees rallied in southern Lebanon on Tuesday in commemoration of the “Nakba” and in solidarity with the Gaza demonstrations.

Many were bused in from the longstanding refugee camps of Lebanon.

Palestinians have a complicated history with Lebanon. The influx of refugees in 1948 exacerbated Lebanon’s delicate sectarian balance and their presence is often cited as a major contributing factor to Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.

Now, more than 450,000 of five million registered Palestinian refugees worldwide live in Lebanon. Legally, their rights are limited: Palestinians cannot own property or attend public schools, and are banned from working in more than 30 professions.

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