Date : 15 May 2021
The chairman of ICSPR, lawyer Salah Abdul Atti, commented on the statement of the Israeli occupation army, which says that through its aggression on the Gaza Strip, it killed 120 fighters from the resistance in the Gaza Strip.
Abdul Atti confirms that this is a false policy and an additional crime to justify the war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, especially targeting civilians and civilian properties, and to justify the excessive and indiscriminate use of force with no consideration to the rules of international humanitarian law and the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military and humanitarian necessity.
Moreover, the occupation has committed massacres against 12 families, whose all members have been exterminated, which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. Even the fighters that the occupation killed, and who by the way nearly 10% of the martyrs, were targeted in their homes with their families, not in the battlefields, where three residential towers and more than 700 housing units and civilian facilities including mosques, schools, media and commercial offices were destroyed, in addition to destroying networks, roads, water lines, electricity supplies, and other crimes continue until now. According to the Hague Conventions and the Geneva Conventions, this is an act of shamelessness and revenge that amount to the level of war crimes by deliberately targeting civilians and civilian objects, and the bombing with missiles weighs more than a ton for civilian facilities, residential towers and homes over the heads of their inhabitants, the destruction of the infrastructure, the bombing of police and government headquarters, private offices, shops and economic establishments, and deliberately carrying out continuous raids to terrorize civilians, using the power of fire, missiles and rockets equivalent to an atomic bomb on an area of no more than 360 kilometers that has been besieged for 16 years, which reflects the disdain and denial of all standards of human rights and international humanitarian law.
Even the claim of self-defense by the occupation and its allies is false, as self-defense, according to a decision of the Security Council is limited to liberation movements and non-aggressor states. The root of the problem is the Israeli occupation, its war crimes, policies, ethnic cleansing, aggression, racial discrimination, colonial settlement, field executions, attacks on civilians and the violation of all Palestinians rights. And the international community has failed even to save its decisions related to the Palestinian cause and failed to protect civilians, and hold the leaders of the occupation accountable as war criminals, which has allowed the occupation state to commit more crimes and expand its aggression against the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, 48 areas and the Gaza Strip.
According to the first protocol annexed to the provisions of the 1977 Geneva Convention and United Nations General Assembly resolutions, the Palestinians have the right to resist occupation and defend themselves, and the right to self-determination guaranteed under the United Nations Charter and human rights charters.
Those who demand the Palestinians to stop resisting the occupation, they must first end the occupation, stop colonial settlement in the West Bank, Judaization, ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, racial discrimination and attacks on Arab citizens in the 48 areas, stop the aggression on Gaza and lift the siege, and ensure the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees.
The international community and international organizations shouldn’t be content with condemning the occupation crimes, but rather exert pressure to stop war crimes, hold the occupation leaders accountable as war criminals, provide all support for the Palestinian struggle, provide international protection, and impose boycott and punishments on the occupation state until it complies with the rules of international law and United Nations resolutions
