RAMALLAH, May 18, 2017 (WAFA) – The Foreign Ministry warned in a statement on Thursday against targeting offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or staff in the Palestinian territories.
The warning came after Palestinians blocked the Red Cross office in Ramallah two days ago to demand stronger intervention by the international humanitarian organization on behalf of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for over one month.
The Red Cross responded by shutting down its Ramallah office.
“The ICRC has been operating for decades in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to ensure the respect for the Geneva Conventions, in the context of the prolonged Israeli military and colonial occupation,” said the statement.
“The Ministry of Foreign affairs underscores the importance of the role and unique mandate of the ICRC in ensuring the respect of international humanitarian law. It is therefore essential that the integrity of the offices and safety of the staff be respected. The targeting, in any shape or form, of ICRC offices is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
The statement said that the Foreign Ministry was working closely with the ICRC to follow up on the hunger strike and the legitimate demands of the prisoners, including the right to receive visits and contact with family members, as part of the efforts to ensure the full respect of prisoners‘ rights.
“In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomes the ICRC‘s statement of 3 May 2017 in which it ‘calls upon the Israeli authorities to shoulder their full responsibilities under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) with regard to family contacts between Palestinians detained in Israel and their families’ residing in the occupied territory,” it said, adding, “The statement further underlines that the transfer of prisoners outside the occupied territory violates the law of occupation, and criticizes Israel‘s unlawful restrictions on family visits and contacts with Palestinian prisoners.”
It added: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs trusts that the ICRC, while pursuing the full respect of prisoners‘ rights, will also continue monitoring the situation of the Palestinian prisoners, notably the hunger strikers, including their health and detention conditions, and will duly inform their families of their situation. This is of the utmost importance in the context of efforts to preserve their human dignity and their lives, further threatened by Israeli punitive measures against them.”
The ministry called for urgent intervention of the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, “to ensure respect for international law by Israel, the occupying Power, as regards the Palestinian prisoners and to compel Israel to immediately meet their legitimate demands.”
It also stressed that “hunger strikes are a form of peaceful protest, a fundamental human right, and Israel‘s actions to break the hunger strike by force, including punitive measures, incitement and threats of force-feeding, which is tantamount to torture, are unlawful and unacceptable. The only way to end the hunger strike is to put an end to the widespread and systematic Israeli human rights violations against which Palestinian prisoners are protesting.”
M.K.
