THE President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, has received US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the presidential headquarters in the city of Ramallah.
Abbas warned of the danger of the measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities, aimed at displacing Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, including Jerusalem, which were revealed by statements issued by Israeli ministers and officials, which call for the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their land, stressing the complete rejection of the displacement of any Palestinian citizen, whether in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, pledging that ‘we will not allow it to happen’.
The President reiterated that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the Palestinian state, noting that it is not possible to accept or deal with the plans of the occupation authorities to separate it, or cut off any part of it, stressing the need to release Palestinian clearance funds immediately, because their withholding violates agreements and international law. The President stressed that the Gaza Strip has priority, and Palestinian people, who fall under the responsibility of the State of Palestine and its administration, will not be abandoned.
President Abbas stressed the need to immediately stop the war of extermination against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, so that the political solution based on international legitimacy can be implemented, starting with the State of Palestine gaining full membership in the United Nations, and convening an international peace conference to end the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, achieving peace and security for all.
In a historic move, Israel, the occupying power, will appear today, for the first time, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Dutch city of The Hague, in the lawsuit filed against it by the state of South Africa, which accuses it of committing the crime of collective genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
South Africa submits an 84-page plea in English, in which it presents evidence that Israel, the occupying power, has violated its obligations under the United Nations Charter, and its involvement in committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
In the case, South Africa asked the International Court of Justice to ‘indicate interim measures in order to protect against further serious and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention and to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention not to engage in, prevent and punish genocide’.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed today it is investigating possible crimes against journalists during the ongoing Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Raporters sans frontières – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) – has also filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding the deaths of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.
The office of ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, has also assured that crimes against journalists are included in its investigation into Palestine.
The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza has so far resulted in the killing of 106 journalists and media workers.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed deep concern on Monday regarding the ‘high toll’ of Palestinian journalists who have been killed in the Gaza Strip, following the deaths of two journalists working for Al-Jazeera Gaza Bureau on January 7.
The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has denounced US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s claims that members of Hamas hide behind civilians in the Gaza Strip, saying the unfounded allegations are an attempt to justify Israel’s crimes of genocide against Palestinians in the war-torn besieged territory.
Hamas said Israel cannot cover up its October 7 defeat with lies. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Blinken said the US continued to stand with Israel in its mission to ‘ensure that October 7 never happens again’. In fact it will happen again and again until Palestine is united ‘from the river to the sea’.
With millions supporting Palestine, now is the time for the trade unions internationally to call general strikes and demand the immediate establishment of the State of Palestine.
