Israel will fail to crush the Palestinians iron will
Israel will fail to crush the Palestinians’ iron will
TEHRAN - More than eight months into Israel’s brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip, about 37,400 Palestinians have lost their lives and nearly 86,000 others have been injured.
Thousands of bodies also remain under the debris of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in the besieged territory.
Israel has pounded residential buildings under the pretext of targeting Hamas fighters.
Health facilities have not been spared from Israeli attacks since the regime declared war on Gaza on October 7.
Israel has committed massacres at several hospitals after storming them. The regime has accused the Hamas resistance movement of using these facilities as its command centers without providing any evidence to back up its claims.
Hundreds of bodies recovered from mass graves at three hospitals in the Gaza Strip show signs of mutilation and torture.
The mass graves have been found at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya.
Palestinian officials and several international organizations say the Israeli army has committed war crimes at these medical sites.
Israel’s “indiscriminate” strikes
On Wednesday, the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) issued a report detailing six "indiscriminate and disproportionate" Israeli strikes that killed at least 218 Palestinians in the first two months of the Gaza war.
It added that the number of fatalities “could be much higher”.
According to the UN body, the attacks targeted "densely populated" areas including refugee camps, a school and a market by using heavy bombs up to 2,000 pounds.
The OHCHR report said the strikes, which were carried out between October 9 and December 2, show Israel’s military had “repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war”.
The report said one of the six attacks that was conducted against the Ash Shujaiyeh neighborhood in Gaza City on December 2 caused destruction across an approximate diagonal span of 130 meters, destroyed 15 buildings and damaged at least 14 others.
Citing the extent of the damage, it noted that around nine 2,000-pound GBU-31 bombs were used in the strike which claimed at least 60 lives.
Jeremy Laurence, an OHCHR spokesman, told reporters that GBU-31s, along with 1,000-pound GBU-32s and 250-pound GBU-39s “are mostly used to penetrate through several floors of concrete and can completely collapse tall structures”.
The report also states that in five of the attacks, no warning was issued, raising concerns with respect to violations of the principle of precaution in attack to protect civilians.
UN demands accountability
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk touched upon the OHCHR report accusing Israel of ignoring civilian harm.
“The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign," he said.
The UN official also demanded that Israel hold perpetrators accountable.
“I call on Israel to make public detailed findings on these incidents. It should also ensure thorough and independent investigations into these and all other similar incidents with a view to identifying those responsible for violations, holding them to account and to ensuring all victims' rights to truth, justice and reparations.”
Defying intl. law
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
The ICJ found in January that there was a risk of violation of the rights of the Palestinian people to protection from genocide.
It ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to desist from killing Palestinians in contravention of the genocide convention, to prevent and punish the incitement of genocide, and to facilitate provision of “urgent basic services”.
The UN’s top court also issued a ruling in May calling on Israel to end its operation in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city of Rafah.
But the regime has turned a blind eye to the court’s rulings and continued its brutal massacres in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has also ignored international calls to end its war of genocide in Gaza.
Hence, the OHCHR report is unlikely to have an immediate effect on the conduct of the Israeli army.
But it could be used as evidence in future legal proceedings against the regime.
Israel uses heavy bombs in Gaza that can penetrate concrete structures. But as Israeli bombs fall, Palestinians put up resistance and fight back against the bogus regime.
Israel can destroy concrete buildings but it will fail to crush the iron will of Palestinians.
source: tehrantimes.com