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Arab League calls for 'binding' UN Security Council resolution to halt Israel war on Gaza

January 22, 2024 at 7:45 pm

Relatives and loved ones of the Palestinians, who got killed during Israeli attacks, mourn as they bury the bodies in the yard of Nasser Hospital since they cannot reach the cemeteries due to attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on January 19, 2024 [Jehad Alshrafi – Anadolu Agency]

The Arab League called, Monday, on the UN Security Council to issue a “binding” resolution for halting a deadly Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.

The call came following an emergency meeting held by the Cairo-based body at the level of permanent delegates upon a request from Palestine to discuss ways of halting the Israeli war, which has killed more than 25,000 people since 7 October.

A resolution adopted by the pan-Arab organisation called on the UN Security Council “to assume its responsibilities to maintain international peace and security, and to take a binding resolution to stop the widespread, systematic Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”

It also urged the US and countries

that pursue double standards and support the Israeli aggression within the Security Council, to follow positions consistent with international law to call for a complete and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza

The Arab League called for obligating Israel “to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people, withdraw from the Gaza Strip, lift the siege and curb its plans and efforts aimed at forced displacement.”

It also condemned the

escalating Israeli crimes in the Occupied West Bank, including the systematic destruction of Palestinian refugee camps and their infrastructure

Monday’s meeting was not attended by Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, who is currently in Brussels to attend a meeting with the foreign ministers of the EU, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, killing at least 25,295 Palestinians and injuring 63,000. Nearly 1,200 Israelis believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

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.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

READ: Gaza under siege: Palestinians forced to grind animal fodder to make bread due to wheat flour shortage