Several countries and international organizations have condemned the Israeli murder of at least 274 Palestinians during an operation to free four Israeli prisoners in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Authorities in the Gaza Strip said on Sunday that at least 698 other people were injured in an “unprecedented brutal attack”, some in critical condition, as hospitals struggled to cope with the influx of injured or dead bodies.
Reporting from inside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said on Sunday that civil defense teams were still finding Palestinians dead or injured under the rubble following the attack by Nuseirat, as more airstrikes target areas across the enclave.
“The shelling continues intensely and it is very difficult for emergency teams to reach the dead and injured Palestinians. They are telling us that there are still people on the roads and under the rubble that they have not been able to reach,” she said.
Since October 7, Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians and injured another 84,494, Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a statement.
Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said the Palestinian Authority is seeking an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on the Nuseirat attack.
The Palestinian armed group Hamas said Israel’s release of four prisoners “will not change the strategic failure of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip”, especially after it took eight months to enact the operation.
He also stated that reports that the United States facilitated the Israeli operation prove once again that Washington is “complicit and completely involved in the war crimes perpetrated” in the besieged coastal enclave.
European Union, Norway
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, had a stronger reaction, writing in a post on X that “the bloodbath must end immediately.”
“Reports from Gaza of another massacre of civilians are appalling. We condemn this in the strongest terms,” he said.
Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, Norway’s deputy foreign minister, wrote in X that he was “horrified by reports of another massacre of civilians in Gaza” and said the country condemns attacks on civilians while calling for the release of captives and a immediate ceasefire.
OIC, Arab Parliament
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), representing 57 member states, most of which have a Muslim majority, condemned what it called “the horrific massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army, which resulted in the murder and injury of hundreds of Palestinians , most of them women and children”.
He called for investigation, accountability and punishment in accordance with international law, highlighting the importance of the role of the International Criminal Court in this regard.
The Arab Parliament based in Cairo denounced the “massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation” and held Israel and the USA responsible.
Peru
In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the country “deplores” the Israeli attack, which it called “barbaric” and another in a long list of “crimes” committed by Israel in Gaza.
“We call on the institutions responsible for maintaining international peace and security, in particular the United Nations Security Council, to exercise their responsibility to put an end to the practice of these crimes by Israel,” the statement adds.
Will
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs attributed the latest murder of hundreds of Palestinians to the “inaction” of world governments and the UN Security Council.
“These horrific and shocking crimes… are the result of inaction by governments and responsible international bodies, including the United Nations Security Council, in the face of eight months of war crimes and violations by the Zionist regime. [Israel],” spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
“The massacred and bloodied bodies of Palestinian civilians and children are the result of the continued injection of American and European weapons into the arsenals of the Zionist regime, and the continued support of the regime from the US and several European countries.”
Jordan, Egypt
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement on X that the Israeli attack is “a practice that reflects the systematic attack on Palestinian civilians, the Israeli persistence in violating international law and international humanitarian law, and in continuing to commit war crimes.” .
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs classified the Nuseirat attack as “a flagrant violation of all provisions of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as all values of humanity and human rights.”
“Egypt holds Israel legally and morally responsible for this egregious attack, demanding that Israel fulfill its obligations as an occupying power and cease the indiscriminate attack on Palestinian civilians, including those in areas where they have been displaced.”
United Nations
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a post on X that “dozens of Palestinian civilians” continued to be killed in Israeli attacks after the organization this week paid tribute to a record 188 UN staff killed in Gaza.
Martin Griffiths, the UN aid chief, called the Nuseirat refugee camp “the epicenter of the seismic trauma that civilians in Gaza continue to suffer” and said all remaining captives must be freed and the war ended.
Saul Takahashi, former deputy head of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Occupied Palestine and professor of human rights and peace studies at Osaka Jogakuin University, told Al Jazeera that the Western response to the killings of Palestinians shows a “double standard”.
“There is a huge double standard when it comes to human lives: that Israeli lives, Ukrainian lives, white-skinned lives are important, but when it comes to Palestinians, brown-skinned people, Arabs in general, they are not as importantly, we don’t really care,” said Takahashi from Toyohashi, Japan.
“As your correspondent mentioned, this is barely reported… the loss of Palestinian lives in the Israeli media. It’s pretty much the same in the U.S. media and many other international media outlets.”
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, said the release of the captives should not have come at the cost of more than 200 Palestinian lives, with foreign soldiers “perfidiously hidden in an aid truck”.
“Israel could have released all the hostages, alive and intact, eight months ago, when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange were put on the table,” she wrote in X, adding that the fact that Israel continued to killing Palestinians while refusing a deal reveals “genocidal intent turned into action.”
“Countries that celebrate the release of four Israeli hostages without saying a word about the hundreds of Palestinians killed and thousands held in arbitrary detention by Israel have lost moral credibility for generations and do not deserve to be on any UN human rights body,” he said. . wrote Balakrishnan Rajagopal, another UN special rapporteur.
Other international organizations
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, which has teams operating at Al-Aqsa Hospital, where most of the victims were taken on Saturday, described a “nightmare” at the facility, running out of medicine, fuel and food.
“How many more men, women and children will have to be killed before world leaders decide to put an end to this massacre?” said Samuel Johann, MSF coordinator in Gaza.
After intense bombardment by Israeli forces on Saturday morning in the Central Area of #GazaOur teams are working with medical staff at Al-Aqsa and Nasser hospitals to treat an overwhelming number of seriously injured patients, many of whom are women and children. pic.twitter.com/JCcPVAfxuE
— MSF International (@MSF) June 8, 2024
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and visiting professor at Princeton University, told Al Jazeera that a daytime operation meant that “some of the bombs clearly fell on or even adjacent to a market in Nuseirat that was full of people.” .
“And in these circumstances, we will predictably have a higher number of civilian casualties than if it had been a night operation. This is inconsistent with the duty to take all possible precautions to spare harm to civilians.”
Israel and its allies praise operation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Operation Nuseirat “will be written in history” and the Israeli military praised its commandos for a “bold” daylight operation.
Israel’s top diplomat rejected unspecified accusations of “war crimes” in the operation. “We will continue to act with determination and strength, in accordance with our right to self-defense, until all hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
US President Joe Biden, who was hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris during a state visit on Saturday, welcomed the release of the captives without commenting on the mass killing of Palestinians.
“We will not stop working until all hostages return home and a ceasefire is reached. It’s essential,” he said.
The US military denied that its floating dock off Gaza or any equipment, personnel or assets were used in the operation, saying that “an area south of the facility was used by the Israelis”.
Macron also praised the rescue mission and called for a permanent political solution to the war in Gaza, but did not mention the large number of civilian deaths.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the release of the captives was a “huge relief”, ignoring the unusually high death toll.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
