Al-Awda Center presents to the Human Rights Council a report on the "Israeli" attacks on Gaza
The Palestinian Return Center in London called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to urgently investigate the recent "Israeli" military aggression that targeted the population and infrastructure in the besieged Gaza Strip, over a period of 11 days, as war crimes.
In the context of a document submitted to the Human Rights Council at its 48th regular session, under reference number A_HRC_48_NGO_40-EN, the Al-Awda Center highlighted violations of human rights and international law committed by "Israel" during its aggression, which lasted from May 10 to May 21, 2021, and caused the killing of more than 248 Palestinians, including more than 65 children, as well as thousands of seriously injured.
The document reported that 6 hospitals and 9 primary health care centers were severely damaged during the days of the military aggression, and the only COVID-19 analysis laboratory in Gaza was destroyed during the same period.
While the violent air strikes damaged more than 54 Palestinian schools, including two kindergartens, in addition to the fact that UNRWA schools were forced to stop teaching in order to provide shelter to the 75,000 Palestinians who were displaced from their homes as a result of the air strikes. Also severely damaged was a desalination plant providing clean water to more than 250,000 Palestinians.
In the context of the same document, the Return Center also touched on the serious calls left by the continuous "Israeli" siege on the residents of the Gaza Strip for 14 years, pointing out that 2.1 million Palestinians, including 1.4 million refugees, all live under an illegal siege that deprives them of freedom of access and exit to and from Gaza through air, land and sea.
It added that those Palestinians are effectively living in an open-air prison, they cannot freely enter or leave Gaza, to see family or friends in Gaza or to obtain life-saving medical care outside the coastal enclave.
In view of the above, the Palestinian Return Center expressed deep concern about the apparent impunity afforded to "Israel" just months after one of its most brutal military attacks on the besieged people of Gaza.
It cautioned that the continuous violations of human rights and international law by "Israel", and its warlike disregard for its international legal obligations, as a sovereign state and as an occupying power, have only greatly worsened the lives of the besieged residents of Gaza.
Al-Awda Center stressed that the investigation step into the recent military aggression is very important towards improving the lives of millions of Palestinians, ensuring lasting peace in the region, by imposing the rule of international law, and ensuring that no crimes targeting any people, including the Palestinian population, go unpunished.
It called on the international community to take the necessary measures towards "Israel", in order to ensure its compliance with its international legal obligations and to hold "Israel" accountable for its previous military attack on Gaza.
It also called on "Israel" to immediately stop its systematic violations of Palestinian human rights and to end its illegal blockade of Gaza.
Source: Palestinian Return Center