Brooklyn residents joined hundreds of New Yorkers Tuesday in a rally to support Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Crowds gathered on 42nd Street in Manhattan as speakers backed Israel, saying it has a right to defend itself.

In Bay Ridge, members of Brooklyn's Palestinian-American community expressed concern that Israel was targeting civilians in its conflict with Hamas.

The rally in Manhattan came as Arab nations floated a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to combat in the Gaza Strip and deployment of an international force to monitor a cease-fire and protect Palestinian civilians.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said that the U.S. shared Arab concerns "about the urgency of the situation" in Gaza. But he warned against "false expectations" of quick action, saying it would take more than "a day or so" to get "an enduring solution to the problem, an enduring cease-fire."

"Practical arrangements have to be put in place in which everyone has confidence that it will be maintained, it will be respected, it will be observed," he said, stressing that any Security Council resolution must also end arms smuggling into Gaza.

AP wire services were used in this report.