The West has failed, "Never again", "Lest we forget", Geneva conventions, UN security council, all meaningless.
‘When the dust settles, we’ll find out about the gravity of Israel’s crimes’
Samir Zaqout, deputy director of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, says that the international community is failing Gaza, turning a blind eye to what he called Israel’s war crimes.
“I believe the Israeli occupation forces have violated all the international laws, even the Geneva Conventions … What is being perpetrated is nothing but war crimes and when the dust settles, we will find out about the gravity of the crimes committed. All those killed are civilians,” he told Al Jazeera in Rafah.
Zaqout said Israel has been targeting “hospitals, mosques, churches amid total silence from the international community, including the International Criminal Court”.
“We have been presenting documents, proving that Israel has violated all the laws. The representative of the [International] Criminal Court came only when Israel claimed that there were violations on the Palestinian side,” he said.
“The international system has fallen in Gaza. We feel ashamed when we speak about human rights or international law.”
Israel is waging war on the UN as well, both diplomatically and on the ground,
The war on Gaza has severely affected the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as Israeli air strikes have hit its facilities being used by many Palestinians as shelters.
Among the more than 18,600 death toll in Gaza since October 7, at least 130 people were UNRWA workers.
‘People in Gaza cannot just live on humanitarian assistance’
As we reported earlier, UNRWA has been warning that hunger is rising in Gaza with desperate people stopping aid trucks and taking food to eat it “straight away”. Speaking to Al Jazeera, analyst Sultan Barakat said “humanitarian aid, no matter how much the amount, is not the solution”. “People there cannot just live on humanitarian assistance,” said Barakat, who is a senior professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
He also commented on the remarks by the UNRWA chief who condemned a “smear campaign” against the agency’s work in Gaza.
“Israel is after UNRWA. They want to close UNRWA, they have been wanting to close UNRWA for many, many years because, for them, UNRWA symbolises the Palestinian cause,” Barakat said.
“It has the same age, 75 years; it was created specifically for the Palestinians, so as long as it persists, it is saying the Palestinian question is still open and its got to be addressed,” he added.
Residential houses in Rafah just got bombed again last night, 27 people dead so far, more trapped under the rubble.
Intentions are clear
Israel’s social equality minister does not rule out Israeli settlements in Gaza Strip
Social Equality Minister Amichai Chikli told Israeli media Ynet that he does not rule out Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip “in certain parts where it makes sense.”
Chikli accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of educating Palestinians “toward terror and murder of Jews” and rejected the idea that the authority, which currently runs the West Bank, could replace Hamas in post-war Gaza.
The minister, who is a member of Natanyahu’s Likud party, suggested coming up with new solutions such as Rafah coming under Egyptian control and Khan Younis under Emirati control.
The result of Sullivan's "extremely serious conversations"
Israel's Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told US national security adviser Jake Sullivan that the war against Hamas in Gaza would last "more than several months," according to Israel's Ministry of Defense.
”Hamas is a terrorist organization that built itself over a decade to fight Israel, and they built infrastructure under the ground and above the ground, and it is not easy to destroy them. It will require a period of time — it will last more than several months, but we will win and we will destroy them," Gallant said, according to a transcript of the meeting released by the defense ministry on Thursday.
Gallant also thanked Sullivan for US support of Israel's campaign in Gaza, saying, "The United States and Israel share common interests, common values; and in this war, we also share common goals."
The Israeli prime minister also expressed gratitude to the US for providing weapons to Israel and resisting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN. He vowed to press on with the war until “complete victory”.
In brief remarks before the meeting, Sullivan told Netanyahu, “You have the support in the United States as you take on this terrorist threat.”
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