CAIRO, March 1 (NNN-WAFA) – The Arab League (AL) welcomed the results of a United Nations’ report that Israeli forces may have committed war crimes over the killing of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories.
AL Assistant Secretary General for Palestine and occupied Arab territories, Saeed Abu Ali, said the results reflect the fairness of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, which classify the ongoing Israeli violations as war crimes or crimes against humanity.
In a statement, the Assistant Secretary-General called on the international community to follow up the important results of this report and to focus on the principle of accountability, demanding that those responsible for the violations and crimes committed daily against the Palestinian people should be identified.
He stressed the importance and necessity of providing international protection to the Palestinian people as well as ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital.
In RAMALLAH, the Palestine Prime Minister’s Office also welcomed the findings of the United Nations.
“The findings and demands to open an immediate investigation by Israel, the Occupying Power, is a right step in the right direction, yet is not enough for establishing comprehensive accountability. The International community must take its responsibility and provide international protection for the Palestinian citizens in every inch of occupied Palestine,” Ahmad Shami, spokesperson to the Office of the Prime Minister stated.
“We urge the international community and all United Nations related institutions to oblige Israel to commit to the fourth Geneva Convention and uphold its legal obligations as a belligerent occupant to protect the Palestinian citizens under its military control,” Shami added.
Shami also pointed out that as the one-year anniversary of the Great March of Return is becoming closer, stressing that “all concerned parties must pressure Israel to respond to the repeated requests of the Commission for information and access to Occupied Palestine.”
A report by the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the occupied Palestinian territory described the Israeli army shooting of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border fence with Israel as war crimes.
The Commission was mandated by the Human Rights Council in May 2018 to investigate all Israeli violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territory in the context of the March of Return protests that began in Gaza on March 30, 2018. — NNN-WAFA
