NEW YORK, Friday, July 12, 2024 (WAFA) – Palestine’s Observer to the UN Riyad Mansour today called for the immediate cessation of Israel’s “slaughter and torment” of the Palestinian people.
“We call again, with utmost urgency, on the international community to stop Israel’s slaughter and torment of the Palestinian people and to ensure their protection in respect of international law and the binding Provisional Measures Orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ),” Mansour said in an identical letter addressed to the President of the Security Council (Russian Federation) on the Forced Displacement of the Palestinian Civilian Population in Gaza.
Reiterating calls for protecting Palestinians, Masnour said: “The Palestinian civilian population in Occupied Palestine, including in the Gaza Strip and including in East Jerusalem, cannot be excluded from the protections accorded to all civilians under international humanitarian law. The High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention have clear obligations in this regard to respect and ensure respect of the Convention in all circumstances.”
Mansour explained that he was compelled to write it “as the horrifying situation being faced by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip worsens by the minute as Israel continues its genocidal onslaught.”
“Though a month has already passed since the Security Council adopted resolution 2735 (2024), and over 9 months of these horrors have been endured, there is still no ceasefire, no protection for civilians, and no reprieve for our people from Israel’s vengeful, sadistic wrath sparing no man, woman or child.”
“While struggling to cope with starvation, dehydration, illness and disease, severe injuries and disabilities inflicted by Israeli attacks and deprivation of all other life essentials, Palestinian civilians in Gaza continue being forced by Israel to endure repeated displacements, running in fear from one place to another, amid ruins and devastation, in a place where absolutely nowhere is safe and even “humanitarian zones and UN shelters are turned by Israel into killing zones.”
Mansour said that the ongoing Israeli genocidal on the Strip is certainly hell on earth.
“This is the reality that Israel has created in Gaza – hell on earth – as its politicians and military commanders vowed to do in their own words. Acting on those words, Israel is not only exacting collective punishment on the Palestinian people, but undeniably seeks to cause as much pain, loss and suffering as possible, deliberately inflicting death, destruction, suffocation and chaos all across Gaza.”
“No sooner does a family find refuge in an UNRWA school, then it is bombed by the Israeli occupying forces (IOF). No sooner does a family find refuge in a tent encampment, then it is set ablaze by Israeli missile strikes. No sooner do casualties and patients reach a hospital, then it is attacked and destroyed by Israeli soldiers. No sooner do families scrape together the means to live in their place of refuge – some food, some water, some hygiene and bedding supplies – then they are forced to “evacuate” by the commands of the IOF demanding that they leave the area, exacerbating what is already a massive humanitarian catastrophe.”
The Palestinian diplomat stressed that “This inhumane, illegal, repeated forced displacement of civilians is happening all across Gaza, causing constant turmoil and trauma, especially to children and other vulnerable civilians, including the sick, wounded and disabled.”
He also stressed that “there is nowhere for the people to go, nowhere that they will be safe. Israel has destroyed the majority of Gaza and whatever is left standing it considers to be a legitimate target as it persists with its systematic, grave breaches of international law, shredding international humanitarian law and human rights law and all protections for civilians.”
He added that “civilians and the doctors, nurses, medics and humanitarian personnel caring for them are forced to flee for their lives over and over,” at a time when “UNRWA schools sheltering the displaced are relentlessly targeted”.
He revealed that two-thirds of UNRWA-run schools are either destroyed or severely damaged in Israeli bombardments, and cited as an example the most recent such attack that occurred two days ago when Israel bombed Al-Awdah school in Abbasan, east of Khan Younis, killing 30 Palestinian children, women and men and wounding nearly 60 more people.
He reiterated his calls to the international community to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.
“The international community must put a stop to this inhumanity. There must be consequences for Israel’s crimes and terror against the Palestinian people to the fullest extent of the law. The Security Council and General Assembly must act to hold Israel accountable for its breaches of the Charter and absolute contempt.”
He also stressed the need to observe an immediate ceasefire and holding perpetrators of the genocidal crimes against Palestinians accountable.
“There must be a ceasefire without another day of delay. This horrific, immoral, gruesome war being waged by Israel in Gaza must be stopped and there must be accountability for the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide it has perpetrated against the Palestinian people across decades. Our people are pleading for these calls to not only be heard, but answered now to save the millions of Palestinians struggling to survive under this illegal, immoral, abhorrent Israeli occupation.”
K.F.
