Palestinian Foreign Ministry: Israel’s demolishing of Palestinian houses a war crime

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, (ST)- The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has stressed that the Israeli aggressive acts of demolishing the Palestinians’ houses , displacing the locals to seize their lands and judaize their areas constitute a war crime according to the International law, calling on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to immediately open an investigation into the occupation’s crimes and to account perpetrators.

In a statement on Sunday, the foreign ministry said that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stressed that 617 Palestinian houses have been razed or seized by the Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank since January, 2019, displacing 898 Palestinians. The figure shows an increase by 35% compared to last year which affirms the occupation’s continuous violations of international laws.

 The ministry said that it started to submit regular reports on the crimes and violations of the Israeli occupation to the ICC five years ago, pointing out that these reports included the Israeli house demolition practices.

The ministry reiterated that it will continue the work with the ICC to open an official investigation into the house demolition crimes and into other Israeli violations.

Hamda Mustafa