Sunday, 16 May 2021 3:59 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 16 May 2021 4:05 PM ]
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (L) talks with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a rally with fellow Democrats before voting on H.R. 1, or the People Act, on the East Steps of the US Capitol on March 08, 2019 in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)
Palestinians inspect a damaged apartment of Al-Qahira (Cairo) Tower in Gaza City on May 16, 2021, following massive Israeli bombardment on the besieged enclave. (Photo by AFP)
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has denounced “in the strongest terms Israel's brutal aggression” against the Palestinian people as the Tel Aviv regime’s relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip enters its seventh consecutive day.
In a statement issued after an emergency meeting of the organization at the level of foreign ministers on Sunday, the 57-member body called for an immediate halt of the attacks on civilians, saying they were “a violation of the international law and the UN resolutions.”
It also clearly warned of the dangerous effects of Israel's repeated and deliberate inflammation of religious sensitivities and its provocation of the feelings of the Palestinian people and the Islamic world.
The statement reiterated its rejection of the continued Israeli settlement expansion and the establishment of an apartheid system in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Jerusalem al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque are a red line for the Islamic world, and there will be no security or stability except with their complete liberation from occupation, it stressed.
Addressing the meeting of the OIC that was held virtually, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the massacre by Israel followed the purported “normalization” of ties between certain Arab countries and the Israeli regime.
Zarif argued that “friendly gestures” are proven to aggravate the criminal and genocidal regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.
The top Iranian diplomat also said the OIC member states should extend the jurisdiction of their national tribunals to include the prosecution of criminals perpetrating war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in the occupied territories.
Zarif: Systematic human rights violations taking place against Palestinians
Zarif: Systematic human rights violations taking place against Palestinians
Foreign Minister Zarif says the sole aim of Israel’s hypocritical gestures is to divide Muslims and isolate the people of Palestine.
Also speaking at the start of the OIC meeting on Sunday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that “Israel’s practices are an assault on Arabs, Muslims, and international norms.”
Al-Maliki stressed that “the Palestinian people are subjected to an Israeli apartheid ... and they are being uprooted from their lands and rights.”
“The rise of the Palestinian people has made it clear that Jerusalem al-Quds is a red line,” he said, adding “our people will not be exhausted by Israel’s killing machine.”
“We need to tell Allah that we will resist to the last day,” he said. “We are facing a long-term occupation. That’s the base of the problem. Crimes are committed against the Palestinians without consequences.”
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, among others, also addressed the virtual meeting.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, “Israel alone is responsible for the recent escalation in East Jerusalem (al-Quds), the West Bank and Gaza”.
“Our warnings to Israel last week went unheeded,” he said.
Earlier, a senior Iranian human rights official strongly condemned the inaction of Muslim countries regarding the Israeli regime’s attacks on Gaza and the massacre of a large number of Palestinian children and women.
"What other crimes should the Zionists commit so that Muslim countries would convene a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation?” Secretary of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights Ali Baqeri Kani said.
Iran rights official denounces Muslim states’ inaction on Gaza, urges OIC emergency meeting
Iran rights official denounces Muslim states’ inaction on Gaza, urges OIC emergency meeting
A senior Iranian human rights official calls for an extraordinary OIC summit to address Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
He added that holding an OIC extraordinary summit is the “least that Muslim governments can do for the oppressed Palestinian people.”
Israel’s continued aerial bombardment of Gaza has so far killed at least 188 Palestinians, including 55 children and 33 women. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, some 1,230 people have also been injured.
Red Cross calls for an end to Israeli attacks
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross in a statement said that world leaders should use "maximum influence" to stop the spiraling conflict.
"Ahead of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Sunday, the ICRC calls on the concerned leaders to exert maximum influence to stop the hostilities between Gaza and Israel," it said.
"For people in Gaza, access to hospitals and other vital infrastructure has become very complicated because of the incessant airstrikes and major damage to roads and buildings."
Wounded Gazans taken to Egypt for treatment
Meanwhile, hundreds of wounded Palestinians from Gaza were taken across the Rafah border crossing into Egypt for medical treatment on Sunday.
Three convoys of 263 Palestinians -- including those wounded in the latest strikes as well as students and travelers with serious ailments -- crossed into Rafah in the restive North Sinai region.
Rafah is the only passage not controlled by Israel to the outside world for Gaza.
Egypt's Red Cross in North Sinai said that medical emergency teams had been dispatched at the Egyptian side to help transport the victims.
Israeli strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the worst reported daily death toll yet in the almost week-long fighting.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet on Sunday to discuss the issue after the US objected to a request by China, Norway and Tunisia for a public, virtual meeting of the Council two days earlier, on Friday, despite the continued onslaught adding to the death toll in Gaza each day.
The US, a close ally of Israel, has repeatedly backed the apartheid regime’s acts of brutality as its “right to self-defense.” Washington has failed to even criticize Israel’s bombardment of Al Jalaa tower in Gaza, which housed offices of Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, along with Arab and local press.
Resistance groups in Gaza have put up a brave defense against Israeli aggression and have retaliated by launching hundreds of rockets into the occupied territories.
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Israel targeting media to hide its war crimes: US Congresswoman
Sunday, 16 May 2021 1:08 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 16 May 2021 1:18 PM ]
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (L) talks with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a rally with fellow
US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says Israel is bombing international media so the world can't see its war crimes against the people of Palestine.
“Israel targeting media sources is so the world can't see Israel's war crimes led by the apartheid-in-chief Netanyahu. It's so the world can't see the killing of babies, children and their parents. It's so the world can't see Palestinians being massacred,” she tweeted on Saturday.
Tlaib is one of the first two Muslim women elected to the US Congress. The other woman is Ilhan Omar, Minnesota’s Representative, a Muslim of Somali descent.
Criticizing US President Joe Biden’s position at the UN, Omar said on Twitter it is “disgusting and immoral for the US to endorse this violent bloodshed.”
“I don’t know any other time when the US has actively blocked a ceasefire and allowed for civilians to get slaughtered,” Omar said.
Israeli forces launched an airstrike on a building that housed several news organizations, including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera in Gaza City on Saturday, amid the latest round of Israeli aggression in the area. The entire 12-story building collapsed, according to AP.
Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the outrageous attack and "raised concerns" about the safety of journalists in the region but failed to condemn the Israeli regime over its atrocity.
On Saturday night, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the president and CEO of The Associated Press, Gary Pruitt.
Blinken reportedly “offered his unwavering support for independent journalists and media organizations around the world and noted the indispensability of their reporting in conflict zones.”
“He expressed relief that the Associated Press team on the ground in Gaza remains safe,” according to a readout of the call from spokesperson Ned Price.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for the US to support a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid escalating Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip.
"Israeli airstrikes that destroyed international media outlets and killed innocent Gaza civilians tell us what we already know: Israel and Hamas must work with negotiators and reach a ceasefire immediately and the US must actively support this effort," Warren said in a Saturday evening tweet.
The Israeli regime forces said they bombed the building because Hamas has "placed military assets" inside high-rise buildings for intelligence gathering, communication and other purposes, a claim media outlets have rejected.
Al Jazeera condemned the attack, and called on “all media and human right institutions to join forces” in denouncing the bombing and to hold Israel “accountable.”
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement that the news outlet was "shocked and horrified" that the Israeli military would target the building.
Biden admin 'literally aids, abets and justifies’ Israeli bombings in Gaza: CAIR
Biden admin 'literally aids, abets and justifies’ Israeli bombings in Gaza: CAIR
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has denounced the Biden administration’s support of Israeli bombing of “innocent men, women and children in Gaza,” saying it will boycott the White House’s annual Eid celebration.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel launched an airstrike on a refugee camp in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing eight children of a Palestinian family.
Israel has been pounding the blockaded enclave with repeated airstrikes for the past several days.
At least 174 Palestinians, including 47 children and 29 women, have been killed and about 1,000 others injured in Gaza in the Israeli regime's latest round of aggression that began on Monday.
