Israel’s current raids on the Jenin refugee camp within the occupied West Bank could represent a warfare crime, a bunch of specialists from the United Nations mentioned Wednesday.
“Israeli forces’ operations in the occupied West Bank, killing and seriously injuring the occupied population, destroying their homes and infrastructure, and arbitrarily displacing thousands, amount to egregious violations of international law and standards on the use of force and may constitute a war crime,” the specialists mentioned in a press release.
Noting that Israeli forces killed at the very least 12 Palestinians, together with 5 kids, and injured greater than 100 Palestinians, between Monday and Tuesday, the assertion mentioned the assaults are “one of Israel’s biggest military operations in the occupied West Bank in years.”
It mentioned that the assaults broken infrastructure, homes and condo buildings, forcing 4,000 Palestinians to flee.
“The attacks were the fiercest in the West Bank since the destruction of the Jenin camp in 2002,” the specialists mentioned.
“It is heartbreaking to see thousands of Palestinian refugees originally displaced since 1947-1949, forced to march out of the camp in abject fear at the dead of night,” they added.
The assertion condemned Israeli forces’ so-called “counter-terrorism” actions as they’d “no legal justification under international law” and expressed “grave concern” about army weaponry and techniques deployed by Israel’s occupation forces at the very least twice during the last two weeks towards Jenin’s inhabitants.
“The Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory are protected persons under international law, guaranteed of all human rights including the presumption of innocence,” it mentioned.
“They cannot be treated as a collective security threat by the occupying Power, all the more while it advances the annexation of occupied Palestinian land, and displacement and dispossession of its Palestinian residents,” the assertion mentioned.
It mentioned that Israel’s raids in Jenin have been “amplifications of the structural violence that has permeated the occupied Palestinian territory for many years.”
“The impunity that Israel has enjoyed for its acts of violence over decades, only fuel and intensify the recurring cycle of violence,” the assertion mentioned.
The U.N. specialists referred to as for Israel to be held accountable underneath worldwide regulation for its “unlawful occupation and violent acts to perpetuate it.”
“For this relentless violence to end, Israel’s illegal occupation must end. It cannot be corrected or improved in the margins, because it is wrong to the core,” they mentioned.
The Israeli offensive got here amid rising tensions throughout the occupied West Bank in current months amid repeated Israeli raids into Palestinian cities.
Nearly 190 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces because the begin of this yr, in response to the Health Ministry. At least 25 Israelis have additionally been killed in separate assaults throughout the identical interval.
Estimates point out that round 700,000 Israeli settlers reside in 164 settlements and 116 outposts within the occupied West Bank.
Under worldwide regulation, all Jewish settlements within the occupied territories are thought of unlawful.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
