The International Commission:  The appropriate response to the current Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip requires working to build a Palestinian strategy based on the internationalization of the conflict and the restoration of national unity

Ref: 100/2019

Date: 13 Nov 2019

Timing: 11:00 local time

Press Release,

 The International Commission:  The appropriate response to the current Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip requires working to build a Palestinian strategy based on the internationalization of the conflict and the restoration of national unity

The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) condemns in the strongest possible terms the Israeli occupation continued perpetration of their crimes against civilians and civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip since Tuesday, 12 November 2019 until now, which resulted “according to statistics of the Palestinian Ministry of Health” the martyrdom of 18 civilians, including a woman, and injuring 80 others, including at least 25 children, and the destruction of buildings, apartments and agricultural land.

Where for the second day in a row, the Israeli warplanes and artillery continued to directly and deliberately target different areas of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the martyrdom of 18 Palestinians, of them:  Bahaa Salim Hassan Abu Al-Atta (42 years) and his wife Asmaa Mohamed Hassan Abu Al-Atta (39 years); Mohammed Attia Musleh Hamouda (20 years); Zaki Mohammed Adnan Ghanama (25 years); Ibrahim Ahmed Abdul Latif Al-Dabous (23 years); Abdullah Awad Sakib al-Bilbisi (26 years); Abdul Salam Ramadan Ahmed (28 years); Mohammed Salah Hassan Abu Shakal (31 years); Rani Fayez Rajab Abu al-Nasr (35 years); Jihad Ayman Ahmed Abu Khater (22 years); Khaled Moawad Salem Farraj (38 years) and Alaa Jaber Ishtaiwi (32 years).

As the Israeli military offensive continues, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is worsening, especially with the continued closure of land border crossings, the denial of entry of essential goods and materials, including medicines and food, and restrictions on the work of fishermen in the Gaza Strip, contrary to the obligations imposed by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War on the Occupation state as an Occupying Power by facilitating the passage of food and medicine to the civilian population of the Occupied Territories in all circumstances.

The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) considers this escalation a violation of international law and holds the Israeli occupation authorities the responsibilities of its consequences, and fears that these current military attacks are a prelude to a wider aggression that only the Palestinian citizen will pay dearly for, and believes that the appropriate response to the current Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip is to work on building a Palestinian strategy based on the internationalization of the conflict and the restoration of national unity. ICSPR affirms that the continued perpetration of their crimes against the citizens of the Gaza Strip and their civilian properties would not have been possible without the continuation of the policy of international silence and the continued enjoyment of immunity by the leaders of the Occupation state in the face of international accountability and justice. Therefore, ICSPR demands the following:

• ICSPR calls upon the international community to intervene immediately to force the Israeli occupation to stop its ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip and to prevent the escalation of Israeli violence and aggression.
• ICSPR urges the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention to carry out their moral and legal obligations by taking urgent action to stop the Israeli aggression and to provide international protection to the civilian population, especially children and women.
• ICSPR affirms that the continued targeting of Palestinian civilians in general, and the population of the Gaza Strip in particular, is a war crime described and identified in accordance with the standards of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the Permanent International Criminal Court in The Hague.
• ICSPR calls on the Palestinian leadership and the national community to build a strategy based on the internationalization of the conflict and to maximize popular, diplomatic, legal and media engagement with the occupation, adopt the BDS movement, call on the world to impose sanctions on Israel, and refer the files of war crimes and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court under Article 14, which will ensure that the leaders of the occupation do not go unpunished, activate the advisory opinion of the Court of Justice in The Hague, join the meaningful international organizations and agreements, and hold the world responsible for violations and crimes that the occupation commits on daily basis.
• ICSPR calls on the President and the Government to immediately stop the punitive measures on the Gaza Strip, and the steadfastness of the citizens, it also calls upon the national components of the Palestinians society to work hard to restore national unity on the basis of implementing the agreements of reconciliation and political partnership in order to ensure the holding of presidential and legislative elections, while ensuring the freedom and integrity of the elections and respect for their results.