SEVEN Palestinian children were killed yesterday in an Israeli strike while attempting to find drinking water in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza – the area where Israel is forcibly displacing residents to, claiming it is a ‘safe zone’.
The attack took place at the same time as the Israeli military ordered Gaza City residents to flee to al-Mawasi, claiming there were better humanitarian services there and that it would be safer, amid a stated plan to occupy the city and forcibly displace about one million people to the south.
Hamas yesterday called for immediate intervention by the UN Security Council following two Israeli ‘massacres’, in which 21 people were killed, many of them children.
Hamas said in a statement that 11 people were killed, including the seven children, in an Israeli drone attack on the al-Mawasi area, near the southern city of Khan Younis, that hit people queueing for water.
In a separate attack in the Daraj neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City, the Israeli military struck the home of the al-Af family, killing 10 people, ‘most of them women and children’.
The Hamas statement said: ‘These crimes expose the criminal fascist nature of the enemy,’ adding that Washington is a ‘partner in a crime against humanity that history will never forgive.
‘The actions of the fascist occupation entity constitute war crimes under international law and international humanitarian law,’ said the statement. ‘They require immediate intervention by the UN Security Council to impose an end to this brutal genocide and hold those responsible accountable.’
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Washington to urgently revise its decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials – including President Mahmoud Abbas – which prevents them attending the UN General Assembly this month, where a number of countries say they will recognise a Palestinian state.
The move did ‘not fit the United Nations’ raison d’etre’, Erdogan told reporters during a flight from China.
‘The decision needs to be urgently revised. The United Nations General Assembly exists for the issues of the world to be discussed and for solutions to be found.
‘The Palestinian delegation not being at the General Assembly would only please Israel.’ He added: ‘What is expected from the United States is to say “stop” to Israel’s massacres.’
