Makkah (UNA) – The Muslim World League (MWL) commended, in a statement issued today, the report of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) on the Israeli occupation government forces’ commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, namely genocide, in the Gaza Strip.
The statement emphasized what the committee's chair, Ms. Navi Pillay, said: "We are witnessing growing indications that Israel is waging a systematic campaign to erase Palestinian life in Gaza. Israel's targeting of the educational, cultural, and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm current and future generations and hinder their right to self-determination."
The League's statement emphasized the importance of the committee's findings, which stated that Israeli forces "committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and intentional killings in their attacks on educational facilities that resulted in civilian casualties." The report also stated that "by killing civilians who had sought refuge in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of genocide."
The Association also noted in its statement the extreme importance and sensitivity of the Commission's documentation of the use of airstrikes, shelling, arson, and deliberate demolition to destroy and damage more than 90 percent of school and university buildings in Gaza, creating conditions that made the education of children, including adolescents, and the livelihoods of teachers impossible, in addition to depriving more than 658 children in Gaza of education for 21 months.
The committee also announced that it had documented and investigated several cases of "deliberate" burning and demolition of educational facilities by Israeli forces, and that occupation soldiers had recorded and distributed videos mocking Palestinians and Palestinian education before destroying schools and universities.
In addition, the committee stated that it “found compelling evidence that Israeli security forces seized educational facilities and used them as military bases or staging areas for their military activities, including converting them into a synagogue for soldiers.”
In a statement issued by the League, His Excellency the Secretary-General and Chairman of the Muslim Scholars Association, Sheikh Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, reiterated his strongest condemnation of these horrific Israeli violations, documented by the United Nations, which violate all international and humanitarian resolutions, laws, and norms without any deterrent.
His Eminence emphasized the urgent need for the international community to fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities and take a strong and effective stance to halt these massacres and all the brutal Israeli practices that are taking place in full view of the entire world, as this unprecedented humanitarian tragedy afflicting the Palestinian people continues to escalate and has become a stain on humanity.
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