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Hamas calls on world to hold Israel accountable for crimes

July 18, 2022 at 10:24 am

Lebanese President Michel Aoun (R) talks to press after meeting with Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh (L) at the Baabda Palace in Beirut, Lebanon on June 24, 2022 [ Presidency of Lebanon – Anadolu Agency ]

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has hailed a UN report after an investigation of Israeli practices, documented crimes and violations against Palestinians and Arabs.

“These crimes included cold-blooded killings, systematic torture of Palestinian detainees, forced deportations, discrimination, racial segregation, house demolitions and colonial settlement expansion,” said Hamas. The movement pointed out that the Israeli crimes documented and condemned by the UN report include “the theft of Palestinian natural resources and the perpetuation of the unjust siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for more than 15 years.”

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The UN report was issued by the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

“[The committee] regrets that Israel did not respond to its request for consultations with Israeli authorities or for access to Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory and the occupied Syrian Golan,” it explained. “Israel’s persistent refusal to engage with the UN mechanisms mirrors a lack of accountability for Israeli conduct in the occupied Palestinian territory, which was drawn to the Special Committee’s attention throughout the mission.”

The protracted occupation, it added, and an entrenched culture of impunity, severely undermine the prospect of Palestinians and Israelis enjoying human rights on an equal basis and living side by side in peace and dignity.

The Special Committee said that it was briefed that in the first half of 2022, Israeli forces killed 60 Palestinians in the West Bank, continued to hold the bodies of 325 Palestinians and denied their families the opportunity for burials and closure.

At the same time, it stated that settler violence has continued to increase at an alarming rate, with 575 incidents of settler violence resulting in Palestinian deaths, injury and/or property damage being reported between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2022. It reiterated that “perpetrators are very rarely held accountable.”

In response to the report, Hamas said, “We call on the international community, with its institutions and organisations, to stand up to their responsibilities, stop the occupation violations, hold their leaders accountable for their war crimes and bring justice to the Palestinians.”

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