JEDDAH, Oct.29, (ST)- The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stressed that the Israeli occupation’s ban on the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territories is an attempt to liquidate the refugee issue and the right of return.
The organization added in a statement issued on Tuesday: “ The occupation’s ban on UNRWA’s work is a flagrant violation of international law, the UN Charter and its relevant resolutions.”
It warned of the repercussions of this on UNRWA’s role in providing basic services to refugees.
The organization also affirmed that the occupation’s continued targeting of the agency, its employees and thousands of displaced persons in its schools will not change its legal status, as it enjoys an international mandate based on the resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, calling on the international community, especially the Security Council, to assume its responsibilities towards protecting UNRWA and its vital role in providing basic services to millions of refugees and ensuring their rights.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas affirmed that the horrific massacre committed by the Israeli occupation in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, is a confirmation of the Zionist plans of genocide and displacement against the Palestinian people, and would not have been committed without international silence.
The movement said in its statement today: “The massacre committed by the Zionist enemy this morning by bombing the residential building in Beit Lahia, which resulted in the martyrdom of about 80 Palestinians, most of them women and children, is an insistence on the genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by the criminal Zionist entity for more than a year, in light of the international silence that encourages the war criminal Netanyahu to continue with his plans of genocide and displacement against our people.”
It underscored that the northern Gaza Strip is being subjected to a campaign of ethnic cleansing and systematic displacement, which represents the failure of the international and UN bodies that are unable to fulfill their legal and moral role in protecting innocent civilians.
The movement called for immediate action to stop the crime of genocide being committed across the Gaza Strip and all the occupied Palestinian territories, warning that the continuation of this war and failure to stop the occupation’s terrorism will have repercussions throughout the region.
For its part, the Palestinian National Council condemned the bloody massacre, indicating that it is a reflection of the lack of accountability and double- standard policy in the of some international parties regarding the crimes of genocide committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for more than a year.
B.Q.