79 Finnish diplomats sign letter criticising country's response to Israel attacks on Gaza

Seventy-nine Finnish diplomats signed a letter that criticised the country’s response to Israeli attacks on Gaza, media reports said Wednesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

The diplomats said in the letter to Foreign Minister, Elina Valtone, that Finland should demand a cease-fire in Gaza and condemned Israel’s disproportionate use of force and likely violations of international law in the region, according to the public broadcaster, YLE, that noted that critical messages sent to ministers by civil servants are rare in Finland’s history.

Valtone said it was good to discuss Finland’s policies as she commented on the letter to the STT news outlet.

“Our foreign and security policies in the Middle East are based on human rights, democracy, the rule of law and equality,” she said.

Noting that Finland is a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Valtone said: “There is no doubt that Finland is prepared to condemn and would like to condemn the perpetrators of — regardless of who the perpetrator is — all of these crimes .”

She stressed that Finland has consistently condemned Israel’s actions in illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since 7 October has mounted to 23,469, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Thursday.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, in October which Tel Aviv says killed around 1,200 in Israel.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

About 85 per cent of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught, while all of the population in the enclave is food insecure, according to the UN.

Hundreds of thousands of residents are living without shelter and less than half of aid trucks are entering the Territory before the start of the conflict.

Watch: Israeli settlers making plans to move to Gaza after war