RAMALLAH, Tuesday, May 09, 2023 (WAFA) – Russia today expressed sorrow over the killing of a Russian national in Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Russian Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority voiced in a tweet its sorrow over the killing of a Jamal Khuswan, a well-known dentist, in the series of airstrikes launched by the Israeli army on Gaza.
Khuswan, 53, was killed along with his wife, Mervat, and 21 year-old son, Youssef, a medical student, who were all asleep in their apartment in the centre of Gaza city.
Leaving behind him two children, including 10-year-old Miral, who appeared in a video footage that went viral on social media platforms inquires “Where is my dad?” as she arrives at al-Shifa Hospital, the Representative Office added that two Russian children are now orphans.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said in a press release that “a Palestinian doctor holding a Russian passport along with his wife and son were killed in their residential apartment that was directly targeted simultaneously with another apartment for one of the targeted commanders in the same building. The doctor was one of the most prominent dental implant specialists and the Chairman of al-Wafaa Charitable Society’s Board of Directors, a non-governmental organization that is a member of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) and runs al-Wafaa Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation and Specialized Surgery, which was previously, and several times bombed.”
Khuswan, his wife, Mervat, and 21 year-old son, Youssef, were among 13 Palestinians who were slain in a series of simultaneous Israeli airstrikes in the dawn hours of Friday.
“Moreover, 18 other Palestinians have been injured, including 4 women and 4 children, in a series of simultaneous airstrikes that targeted 4 residential apartments over their residents’ heads without a prior warning as part of extrajudicial execution crimes (assassinations) upon a decision from Israel’s top military, political and judicial echelons,” PCHR added.
It voiced its concerns that the Israeli aggression “may continue and escalate, especially in light of the measures announced by Israel, including the closure of crossings with Gaza and taking security measures in Israeli compounds adjacent to Gaza, indicating that the aggression might extend, and Palestinian civilians would pay the price.”
“Extrajudicial killings are carried out pursuant to Israeli intelligence information and those wanted are killed instantly instead arresting them. By this, IOF usurp judges’ role in deciding and executing a death sentence at the same time. Assassination crimes by warplanes have mostly and unnecessarily inflicted civilian casualties that amount to a war crime,” it stressed.
Slamming international silence, PCHR indicated that “IOF have always used this type of crimes in the recent years against the Palestinians in light of international community’s silence, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and inaction to stop these crimes and take effective measures against the Israeli occupation, therefore encouraging Israel to commit further war crimes against the Palestinians.”
It reminded “that the Palestinian civilians always pay the price of Israeli offensives, warning that this Israeli policy holds 2 million Palestinians hostages of bombing, fear, anxiety, siege, and direct targeting.”
PCHR strongly condemned the Israeli offensive and voiced deep concern over the “dramatic deterioration of the security situation, fearing an inclusive explosion” and urged the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take serious action into the situation of Palestine.
It reiterated its call upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention fulfill their obligations as per Common Article 1 of the Convention, “undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances,” and their obligations under Article 146 of the same Conventions, i.e., to hold accountable persons accused of committing grave breaches of the Convention.
K.F.
