These has been a record surge in deadly Israeli raids, shootings and settler attacks against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank in recent months. At least 212 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids, shootings and settler attacks so far this year, according to international media reports. While violence has claimed lives of armed Palestinian fighters, a number of innocent Palestinian civilians have also been killed in Israeli attacks. Earlier this week, a 17-year-old Palestinian died after being shot by an Israeli settlement guard in the occupied West Bank.
The violence has also alarmed Israel’s allies including the US, which has branded a recent killing of a Palestinian teenager by settlers as ‘terror’. The violence has increased significantly ever since the new right wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office late last year. His coalition contains far-right parties, including one whose leader was once convicted of anti-Arab racism, according to the BBC.
At the same time, there have been increased incursions, under the protection of occupying forces, by Israeli settlers into the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Islamic endowments department in Occupied Jerusalem has been calling on the Israeli occupation authorities to prevent such incursions and provocations, but to no avail.
Like the rest of the Arab and Muslim world, the State of Qatar has strongly condemned aggressive Israeli actions. It has warned that that systematic Israeli attempts to change the historical and legal status quo of Al Aqsa Mosque will lead to a destructive escalation and renewed violence, urging the international community to take urgent action to stop the repeated Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people.
Recently, the State of Qatar also submitted a memo to the International Court of Justice in which it condemned in the strongest terms the ongoing and illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, and demanded the court to conclude that Israel’s obligations under international law require it to immediately end its illegal occupation, in addition to providing full compensation for the damage and suffering caused by the occupation. The memorandum drew the court’s attention to the victims of the ongoing Israeli occupation, namely the children who were killed by this occupation, the men and women whose dignity the occupation crushed, and the refugees it expelled from their homes. It also accurately documents many examples of Israel’s human rights violations, war crimes committed by it, and its crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League have also submitted their statements on the issue to the World Court.
