CAIRO: Secretary-General Ahmad Abul-Gheit of the Arab League has called on the US to shoulder its due responsibilities by pressing the Zionist occupation to stop the military aggression on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Abul-Gheit made the call while meeting with visiting US senators on the latest developments in the Palestinian territory, the Cairo-based bloc said in a press release. “Zionist practices are considered to be patterns of collective punishment that amount to war crimes and break international humanitarian law,” he warned.

He underlined that it is essential to put the bi-state approach in place in an earnest and genuine manner in order to put an end to the long-lasting conflict. The Arab bloc’s chief, further, asked the visiting US senators to seek to make their country put leverage on the Zionist occupation to halt the war machine in the Palestinian enclave.

Meanwhile, the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union on Friday denounced recent comments by two Zionist ministers in which they had called for the forced displacement of the population of the Gaza Strip. “These racist statements reflect the identity of the colonizer, breach of Palestinian rights, and disrespect for international charters, norms, and conventions,” the union said in a press release. It further decried the expulsion or displacement of civilians at times of war and conflict as a war crime.

The union, therefore, called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and all international and humanitarian organizations to keep pressing the Zionist occupation to observe international legitimacy resolutions and international consensus and to provide protection for the defenseless Palestinian people. The occupation’s insistence on pursuing “the law of the jungle” would only throw the entire region into further violence, it warned. — KUNA