By ESTHER ALEXANDER, Abuja –
No fewer than 33,634 Palestinians have been killed and at least 76,214 wounded in Israeli military onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
In addition, 462 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, while 13,000 Palestinians are reportedly missing in the Gaza Strip as of April 12, 2024.
The Palestine Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh, in a statement on Monday titled: “On the 192 day of the frenzy genocidal war against the Palestinian people”, called for urgent international action in setting up special mechanisms and specialized teams to remove debris from homes and buildings that Israel’s army has bombed, rescue those trapped alive under the rubble, and retrieve the thousands of dead bodies stuck under it.
According to OCHA, since 7 October 2023 and as of 29 January 2024, at least 198 Palestinian households comprising 1,208 people, including 586 children, have been displaced amid settler violence and access restrictions. The displaced households are from at least 15 herding or Bedouin communities.
Building on its historical responsibilities with the issuance of the despicable Balfour Declaration, which led to the unjust situation that Palestinians faced 78 years ago, Qaddura Fares, the Head of Detainees and Ex-Detainees, called on the British Consulate’s Political team to urge the British government to take a real position and practical steps against the massive Israeli aggression and retaliatory actions against Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
“As of Tuesday, April 9, the number of Palestinians detained since October 7 is 8,165 from the Occupied West Bank only, including 272 women, 500 children, and 66 journalists, 45 of whom are still under arrest and 24 of whom are sentenced to administrative detention.
“14 detainees have been killed due to brutal torture and ill-treatment. More than 4852 administrative detention orders have been issued. The detention campaigns include brutal beatings, vandalism, and confiscation of money and gold. According to Israeli media, 27 detainees from Gaza were killed at Sadeh Timan military camp”, the statement added.
According to the Human Rights Watch “Israeli forces unlawfully attacked a residential building in Gaza on October 31, 2023, absent any apparent military target, killing at least 106 civilians, including 54 children. An Israeli airstrike on a six-story apartment building sheltering hundreds of people in central Gaza … is an apparent war crime. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity of the building at the time of the Israeli attack, making the strike unlawfully indiscriminate under the laws of war. Israeli authorities have provided no justification for the attack. The Israeli military’s long track record of failing to credibly investigate alleged war crimes underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s inquiry into serious crimes committed by all parties to the conflict.
The ongoing Israeli attempt to change the status quo in Al Aqsa mosque has not stopped yet and has taken many forms. Last Friday, April 5, the Israeli occupation forces attacked hundreds of worshipers following the dawn prayer, launching tear gas canisters and arresting at least five of them.
With the largest hospital in Gaza largely destroyed and out of action, access to healthcare has now become “totally inadequate” following six months of brutal fighting …. Most of the buildings are extensively damaged or destroyed and the majority of equipment is unusable or reduced to ashes…. That’s the assessment following a WHO-led multi-agency mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza on 5 April which examined the extent of destruction following a weeks-long Israeli offensive.
On Friday, April 5, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The HRC resolution condemns Israeli actions that may amount to ethnic cleansing and calls upon all states to cease arms, munitions, and surveillance technology to Israel.
The resolution also condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza and deplores the ongoing Israeli policy of imposing punitive measures on the Palestinian people. It also calls upon Israel to end its practice of withholding Palestinian tax revenues.
The recently released World Bank and UN joint report states that the cost of the damage to critical infrastructure in Gaza is estimated at $18.5 billion, equivalent to 97% of the Gross Domestic Product of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The report stressed that over one a million people are without homes and 75% of the population is displaced. Catastrophic cumulative impacts on physical and mental health have hit women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities the hardest, with the youngest children anticipated to be facing life-long consequences to their development. 84% of health facilities or destroyed…. the population have minimum access to health care, medicine, or lifesaving treatments the water and sanitation system has nearly collapse, delivering less than 5% of its previous output. The education system has collapsed, with 100% of children out of school.
After the deadly Israeli attack that claimed the lives of 7 humanitarian aid workers from the World Central Kitchen WCK, the Israeli occupation army decided to dismiss two senior officers, while many others were reprimanded. For the Israeli occupation, this is the maximum punishment that these criminal soldiers must bear. It is very clear evidence that people’s lives are not worth much to Israelis, let alone the lives of thousands of Palestinians.
On April 2, 2024, the Palestinian leadership renewed its request to activate the application dated September 23, 2011, for full membership of the State of Palestine in the UN. It is important to note that the USA blocked this motion in the Security Council at that time using the veto. This time, the USA declared its long-standing and well-known position in advance that they are against this move. We call on the entire international community to support Palestine in becoming a full member state of the UN.
UNSG Guterres said “The Israeli government has acknowledged mistakes,”. “But the essential problem is not who made the mistakes, it is the military strategy and procedures in place that allow for those mistakes to multiply time and time again.” “Fixing those failures requires independent investigations and meaningful and measurable changes on the ground,” “196 humanitarian workers have been killed, and we want to know why each one of them was killed?”
Guterres added he was “deeply troubled” by reports that the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza. “No part of life and death decisions which impact entire families should be delegated to the cold calculation of algorithms,” Guterres said.
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