Arab states call on international community to intervene and stop Israel from killing civilians
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Qatar on Monday said Israel’s deadly strikes on a camp for displaced civilians could hinder talks towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The Gulf nation said it was concerned the bombing, which killed killed at least 45 people, would “complicate ongoing mediation efforts and hinder reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire”.
Qatar, alongside the US and Egypt, has been engaged in months of talks aimed at securing a truce between Israel and Hamas in the devastated Gaza Strip.
The Israeli strikes represent a “dangerous violation of international law”, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry warned.
It called on the international community to take immediate action to prevent Israel from “implementing its plans to forcibly displace [Palestinians] from the city, which has become a final refuge for hundreds of thousands”.
Discussions are set to resume on a 12-month ceasefire after an initial six-week truce in which Hamas will release about 20 of the estimated 130 hostages it still holds, along with an unspecified number of bodies of Israelis who died in captivity.
But talks have reached a stalemate after Israel sent troops to the southern Gaza city of Rafah on the border with Egypt.
Other Gulf nations strongly criticised the strike, reaffirming international warnings to Israel to refrain from the Rafah operation.
The UAE condemned Israel’s attack on “displaced persons in Rafah”, state news agency Wam reported on Monday.
The UAE “stressed the importance of committing to implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice demanding Israel’s immediate halt to the operations in Rafah”.
Saudi Arabia said it condemned “in the strongest terms the continued massacres committed by Israeli occupation forces”.
The kingdom’s Foreign Ministry called on the international community “to intervene immediately to halt the massacres” committed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry also decried the Israeli attack on the camp, saying it exposed Israel’s “blatant war crimes and unprecedented genocide to the whole world”.
It also called for an “immediate and firm intervention by the international community”.
Egypt said the attack was a “deliberate bombardment by Israeli forces of displaced peoples’ tents” in Rafah. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called on Israel to “implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice concerning an immediate cessation of military operations” in Rafah.
Cairo condemned the strike as “a new flagrant violation of the provisions of international humanitarian law”.
It deplored the “tragic event” and denounced the “targeting of defenceless civilians” and “a systematic policy aimed at widening the scope of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip to make it uninhabitable”.
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