The Government and the people of the Sultanate of Oman join the rest of the world in expressing strong condemnation and rejection of the persistent Israeli aggression in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, and the recent targeting of a camp housing displaced people in Rafah.
The heinous acts being committed by the occupying state require deterrent international intervention including the imposition of sanctions on Israel given the clear violation of international law.
Just like the rest of the world, the people of Oman feel it is high time that the global community imposed sanctions on Israel due to the fact that Israel’s never-ending criminal practices constitute a clear violation of international law, contravene international humanitarian law and violate values of human dignity.
The Israeli occupation’s failure to comply with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) recent decision regarding the situation in Gaza needs more attention.
The indiscriminate killing of civilians, including children is against international law and severely violates the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s order to halt the Rafah offensive.
Last week, the ICJ demanded that the Israeli occupation immediately cease its military attack on Rafah, asserting that the humanitarian situation in the city has deteriorated further since the court’s latest order.
But on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike triggered a fire that killed 45 people in a tent camp in the Gazan city of Rafah, prompting an outcry from global leaders who urged the implementation of a World Court order to halt Israel’s assault.
Survivors said families were preparing to sleep when the strike hit the Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood where thousands were sheltering after Israeli forces began a ground offensive in the east of Rafah over two weeks ago. Video footage showed a fire raging in the darkness and people screaming in panic. A group of young men tried to haul away sheets of corrugated iron and a hose from a single fire truck began to douse the flames.
It is very sad to note that more than half of the dead were women, children, and elderly people, as stated by health officials in Gaza. In fact, the death toll was likely to rise from people with severe burns. Indeed this calls for the world to act and this time act fast.
While Oman calls for these operations must stop as there are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians, International humanitarian law needs to apply for all, also for Israel’s conduct of the war.
Israel has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack in October.
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