CAIRO/GAZA: The Arab League on Tuesday affirmed the significant role of the Arab boycott of the Zionist entity as an effective and legitimate means to resist the occupation. Saeed Abu Ali, assistant secretary general for Palestine and the occupied territories, stressed the necessity to activate regional boycott bureaus and boost the coordination among the offices in this dangerous phase, amid bids to eradicate the Palestinian cause.

Abu Ali was speaking at the inauguration of the 96th session of the officers of the regional offices for boycotting the Zionist entity in Arab states. Arab summits and ministerial councils have maintained the call upon Arab states, establishments, companies and individuals to stop all forms of dealing with Zionist settlements, established on occupied Palestinian lands, he said, alluding in particular to a ban on imports of products of these settlements or investing in them.

War crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza warrant firm and decisive international intervention to halt the continuing annihilation and genocide, Abu Ali said. The session kicked off Tuesday at the Arab League headquarters, chaired by Abu Ali, with Kuwait’s participation. The league said in a statement that the conference discussed several topics related to the Arab economic boycott of the Zionist occupation, in implementation of the league’s resolutions, taken at the foreign ministers meeting and the Arab summit held in Bahrain in May.

The May Arab Summit affirmed taking all necessary measures to ensure the boycott of all companies and business establishments that operate in the illegal Zionist settlements in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories and holding them responsible for the consequences of their illegal acts.

The conference agenda includes many topics related to the Arab boycott, including enforcing the ban, including companies on the boycott list, warning or removing other companies from the ban list for their response to the boycott provisions, and focusing on continuing to activate the regional boycott offices in Arab countries.

Attendees also discussed a special item regarding the international boycott movement against the Zionist occupation (BDS) by monitoring its activities and achievements, which express the solidarity of the peoples of the world with the Palestinians. The statement stressed the importance of the role of the boycott in exposing companies and institutions that support the colonial and apartheid regime and cooperate with it.

Zionist forces bombarded several areas of the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and thousands of Palestinians fled their homes. Eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, health officials said. The Zionist military said that two soldiers had been killed in battle a day earlier. Later on Tuesday, 17 Palestinians were killed in Zionist tank shelling of a street in the densely populated Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City in the north of the Strip, medics said. Footage on some Palestinian social media showed the scene at a local market, with bread scattered on a floor stained with blood.

The Zionist army ordered residents of several towns and villages in eastern Khan Younis to evacuate their homes on Monday, prior to tanks re-entering the area the military had left several weeks ago. Thousands who had not heeded the call were forced to flee their homes in the dark overnight, as Zionist tanks and planes bombed Karara, Abassan and other areas that had been named in the evacuation orders, residents and Hamas media said.

“Where will we go?” said Tamer, a 55-year-old businessman, who has been displaced six times since Oct 7. “Every time people go back to their homes and begin to rebuild some of their lives even on the rubble of their houses, the occupation sends the tanks back to destroy what is left,” he told Reuters via a chat app. The Zionist offensive has killed at least 37,925 people, mostly women and children, according to data from the health ministry in Gaza.

The Zionist military said its forces had struck areas in Khan Younis from where around 20 rockets had been fired on Monday. Islamic Jihad, an allied group of Hamas, said it was responsible for firing the rockets. Within the areas subject to evacuation orders was the European Gaza Hospital, which serves both Khan Yunis and Rafah, and medical officials had to evacuate patients and families who had taken shelter in the facility, witnesses and medics said. Some residents headed west towards the Mawasi area via the beach, which is designated as a humanitarian area but is overcrowded by displaced families.

An AFP photographer saw Palestinians leave eastern Khan Yunis on foot, in cars and on horse or donkey carts, carrying their belongings with them. Some displaced people with nowhere to go were sleeping on the streets, witnesses said. Ahmad Najjar, a resident of the town of Bani Suhaila, said the Zionist evacuation order had caused “a large displacement of residents” and spurred “fear and extreme anxiety”.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees estimates that “around 250,000 people have been impacted by these orders”, said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge. “We expect that almost all of these people will move from this area,” she said. Six consecutive days of intense battles followed a similar evacuation order issued last week for the Gaza City district of Shujaiya.

An AFP correspondent reported artillery shelling in the northern area on Tuesday, and witnesses said gun battles raged on. In central Gaza, witnesses said strikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp where the Palestinian Red Crescent reported at least one dead, a child. Mohamed Al-Jalees, displaced from Shujaiya to Nuseirat, helped clear the rubble and search for survivors. “A missile struck our neighbors’ house,” he told AFP. “We rushed to check on them, and some were rescued alive (but) we found a martyred child. I have been displaced here for nine months... This is our daily routine.” — Agencies