Despite international condemnation and calls to refrain from barbaric violence, Israel has gone ahead with its horrific crimes against the Palestinians by carrying out deadly pre-dawn strikes on Gaza killing 13 people including four children. The Palestinian health ministry said that 20 people were wounded and some of them are in critical condition.
The fact that this brutal aggression comes at a time during the Universal Periodic Review of Israel at the United Nations shows that Israel doesn’t adhere to international laws nor respect or accept the recommendations. The review saw Israel’s rights record harshly criticized by most countries who took the floor.
As per media reports many of the nearly 90 countries that took the floor expressed alarm about escalating violence and condemned abuses against Palestinians. AFP reported that some, like the Palestinian representative, and those of Qatar and Namibia, demanded an end to Israel’s “apartheid regime”, while China’s representative maintained the country was “plagued by racism and xenophobia”.
Meanwhile, the State of Qatar condemned in the strongest terms the brutal Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, considering it a new episode in the series of horrific occupation crimes against the defenseless Palestinian people, especially women, and children. The Ministry warned of the fading chances of peace and the widening cycle of violence due to the provocative Israeli escalation.
It is worth noting that yesterday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists released a report in which they detailed how the Israeli military has systematically evaded accountability in the deaths of journalists over the years.
The report focused on cases of 20 reporters whose deaths it attributed to the Israel Defense Forces since 2001. No one has been charged or held accountable in any of them. This report was released just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist with Al Jazeera, who was killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. To date, no one has been charged, disciplined, or otherwise held responsible.
At the UN review diplomats also decried Israel’s settlement expansion policies, forced evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes, and demanded investigations of settler attacks on Palestinians.
All this amounts to nothing if Israel moves ahead with such brute force and violence against Palestinians, which claims the innocent lives of many including children. The international community needs to come together and exert tremendous pressure on this aggressive regime to follow the path of peace and stop violating international law.
