Int’l intervention needed to prevent displacement of Khan Yunis residents, PA says

The Palestinian presidency yesterday called for international intervention to prevent the displacement of residents of Khan Yunis to the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a statement seen by Anadolu news agency, the Palestinian presidency described what is happening in Khan Yunis in central Gaza as a “war crime.”

It noted that it “went to the Security Council to hold an emergency and urgent session to confront this serious crime,” according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

The presidency warned against “the danger of the Israeli occupation authorities asking the people of Khan Yunis to leave their places of residence and head towards Rafah.”

It explained that most of the people in Khan Yunis “were displaced from northern and central Gaza as a result of the ongoing aggression,” stressing that “this is a war crime that cannot be tolerated.”

It warned the international community “that the intentions of the Israeli occupation authorities have become clear, to displace the Palestinian people from their land and homeland, including the objectionable consequences that this would entail.”

The Palestinian presidency called on “the international community, especially the American administration, to intervene immediately to prevent Israel from committing this major and dangerous crime, which violates all international conventions and agreements as well as international law.”

“The time has come for the American administration and the international community to take serious decisions and measures to stop this brutal aggression that has brought the region to this dangerous situation, which threatens even greater explosions,” it added.

“The mad Israeli escalation, accompanied by genocidal operations and the existential threat to the Palestinian people, will lead to an expansion of the circle of conflict in the region, and will cause an uncontrollable fire.”

It noted that “the continuation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, along with its escalating aggression against Jerusalem and its holy sites, and against the cities, villages and camps of the West Bank, and its [Israel’s] continued violation of the Palestinian people and international law, will not achieve security and peace for it or for others.”

“Peace and security can only be achieved through political solutions based on the two-state solution,” it said.

Since Monday, the Israeli army has launched a series of intense air and artillery raids on Khan Yunis and around the hospitals in the city, while tanks have circled the area.

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