CAIRO: The Arab League reiterated its denunciation of the atrocities being committed by the Zionist occupation forces against Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip, including the killing of dozens of civilians and the stifling blockade of the enclave. The emergency meeting of the League’s Council, held on the permanent-delegate level on Monday at the request of Palestine and under the chairmanship of Morocco, adopted a resolution to reaffirm rejection of the Zionist designs against the Palestinian people.

The resolution cited the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure, including residential areas, hospitals, universities, mosques, and churches, as examples of the scorched-earth policy of Zionists, which aims to turn Gaza into uninhabitable territory. It also denounced the hate speech practiced by the government of the occupation against the Palestinians, noting that all of these crimes are tantamount to genocide.

The League’s Council urged the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility for protecting international peace and security and adopt a binding resolution to halt the atrocities being perpetrated systematically by the occupation forces. It also urged the United States to do away with the policy of double standards and stop providing political support to the Zionist occupation at the UN Security Council when it comes to the ordeal of the Palestinian people.

"Instead, the United States should adopt stances that are consistent with the rules of international law and humanitarian law and back the calls for a full and durable ceasefire,” the resolution said. The United States and other permanent members of the UN Security Council have to force the occupation authorities into halting the aggression on the Palestinian people, pulling back their forces from the Gaza Strip, lifting the embargo on the Strip, and canceling the plans for the forcible evacuation of Palestinians, it urged.

‘Catastrophe scenario’

"The plans, made public by the extremist members of the Zionist cabinet, to evict nearly one million Palestinians forcibly from their homes and turn them into refugees or internally displaced persons pose grave risks to regional and international security. "The Arab countries cannot tolerate the recurrence of the Nakba (catastrophe) scenario of 1948 and will adopt all legal, diplomatic, and economic steps to prevent the displacement of the Palestinian people,” according to the resolution.

The League’s Council cautioned all countries and organizations against any form of cooperation with the occupation authorities in their criminal designs to forcibly evacuate the Palestinian residents of Gaza. It was noted that such cooperation would turn those involved into accomplices in crimes stipulated in international laws and relevant UN conventions.

The Council’s resolution stressed the need for practical steps to foil the Zionist designs, including lobbying for an immediate halt to the military aggression, lifting the siege on Gaza, rehabilitating the health facilities and civilian infrastructure, and resuming the flow of humanitarian aid and the activities of international aid agencies.

In this context, the resolution recalled UN Security Council Resolution 2720 (2023), calling for immediate, unhindered delivery of aid on a safe and large scale across Gaza. It welcomed the decision of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in late December to appoint Sigrid Kaag as Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2720.

On the situation in the occupied West Bank, the Arab League’s Council denounced the deadly attacks on Palestinian refugee camps and homes, the detention of thousands of Palestinians on a daily basis, and the attacks and intimidation perpetrated by Jewish settlers against Palestinian residents under police protection. The Council also condemned the 100-day siege laid by the occupation authorities on the holy Aqsa Mosque, which undermined the freedom of worship, as well as the repeated incursions into and desecration of the site by Jewish settlers.

It reaffirmed the Jordanian Hashemite’s jurisdiction over all Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Waqf Department of the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf Islamic Affairs and Holy Places is solely entitled to manage the financial, religious, and maintenance affairs of the purely Islamic site of Aqsa Mosque, which amounts to 144 sq. m.

The Council urged the supporters of the occupation authorities to stop providing them with munitions that could be used in atrocities against the Palestinians; otherwise, those countries would be accomplices in crimes against humanity. The countries that have some nationals working with the occupation army against the Palestinian people must bring those mercenaries to book and adopt legal action against them, the resolution urged.

South Africa hailed

The League’s Council appreciated the efforts made by the Republic of South Africa to prosecute the occupation entity at the International Court of Justice for violating its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). It called on the peace-loving, law-abiding countries to back the legal steps initiated by South Africa, welcoming the decision of the Libyan Presidential Council to join the genocide case against the Zionist entity.

It called on Arab and international bar associations and organizations to file lawsuits with national and international courts against perpetrators of crimes against the Palestinian people and designate them as terrorists. Regarding the aggression on Syria and Lebanon, the Council renewed its condemnation of the recurrent attacks, the latest of which took place in Damascus on Saturday. Such attacks undermine the sovereignty of Syria and pose a serious threat to regional and international security, according to the Council’s resolution.

The Council stressed that the only way to regional stability is through recognition of the Palestinians’ legitimate and inalienable rights, notably the right to establish an independent, fully sovereign, and viable state within the pre-June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital city. It praised the Qatari-Egyptian mediation efforts aiming to reach a durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and deliver aid to the residents of Gaza.

It also appreciated the call of Algeria, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, to hold an emergency session by the Council to discuss the Zionist plans for the forcible evacuation of the Gazans. It also extolled the UAE’s successful lobbying during its term as a non-permanent member of the Council (2022–2023) for the Palestinian question, which led to the adoption of Council resolutions 2712 and 2720 last year.

Tents on the ruins

Meanwhile, thousands of forced displaced Palestinians from various areas of the Gaza Strip headed south due to the bombings that destroyed their homes, forcing them to set their tents on the ruins of demolished houses in the city of Rafah. The city of Rafah, adjacent to the Egyptian border, shelters the largest number of displaced people from the south, central, and north of Gaza after Zionists forced them to leave.

According to the latest data, the occupation forces dropped 65,000 tons of explosives since October 7, which completely destroyed 70,000 units, while 290,000 partially destroyed units became inhabitable. The occupation forces also destroyed 138 governmental buildings, demolished 97 schools, and partially destroyed 295 schools. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), there are approximately 1.4 million refugees placed in 154 of their facilities in Gaza’s five governorates. — KUNA