Arab League Warns Against Israeli Designs For Forcible Evacuation Of Gazans

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) CAIRO, Jan 22 (KUNA) -- The Arab League reiterated denunciation of the atrocities being committed by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian residents in Gaza Strip, including the killing of dozens of civilians and the stifling blockade of the enclave.
The emergency meeting of the League's Council, held on the permanent-delegate level on Monday at the request of Palestine and under the chairmanship of Morocco, adopted a resolution to reaffirm rejection of the Israeli designs against the Palestinian people.
The resolution cited the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure, including residential areas, hospitals, universities, mosques and churches as examples of scorched-earth policy of Israel which aims to turn Gaza into uninhabitable territory.
It also denounced the hate speech practiced by the government of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians, noting that all of these crimes are tantamount to genocide.
The League's Council urged the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility for protecting the international peace and security and adopt a binding resolution to halt the atrocities being perpetrated systematically by the Israeli occupation forces.
It also urged the United States to do away with the policy of double standards and stop providing political support to the Israeli occupation at the UN Security Council which it comes to the ordeal of the Palestinian people.
"Instead, the United States should adopt stances that are consistent with the rules of the International law and the humanitarian law, and back the calls for full and durable ceasefire," the resolution said.
The United States and other permanent members of the UN Security Council have to force the Israel occupation authorities into halting the aggression on the Palestinian people, pulling back their forces from Gaza Strip, lifting the embargo on the Strip and canceling the plans for forcible evacuation of Palestinians, it urged.
"The plans, made public by the extremist members of the Israeli cabinet, to evict nearly one million Palestinians forcibly from their homes and turn them into refugees or internally-displaced persons pose grave risks to regional and international security.
"The Arab countries cannot tolerate recurrence of the Nakba (catastrophe) scenario of 1948 and will adopt all legal, diplomatic and economic steps to prevent displacement of the Palestinian people," according to the resolution.
The League's Council cautioned all countries and organizations against any form of cooperation with the Israeli occupation authorities in their criminal designs to forcibly evacuate the Palestinian residents of Gaza.
It noted that such cooperation would turn those involved into accomplices in crimes stipulated in international laws and relevant UN conventions.
The Council's resolution stressed the need of practical steps to foil the Israeli designs, including lobbying for immediate halt to the Israeli military aggression, lifting the siege on Gaza, rehabilitating the health facilities and civilian infrastructure, and resumption of the flow of humanitarian aid and the activities of international aid agencies.
In this context, the resolution recalled the UN Security Council Resolution 2720 (2023) calling for immediate unhindered delivery of aid on a safe and large scale across Gaza.
It welcomed the decision of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in late December to appoint Sigrid Kaag as Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza pursuant to the Security Council Resolution 2720.

On the situation in the occupied West Bank, the Arab League's Council denounced the deadly Israeli attacks on Palestinian refugee camps and homes, the detention of thousands of Palestinians on a daily basis, and the attacks and intimidation by perpetrated by Jewish settlers against Palestinian residents under Israeli police protection.
The Council also condemned the 100+ day siege laid by the Israeli occupation authorities on the holy Aqsa Mosque, which undermined the freedom of worship, as well as the repeated incursions into and desecration of the site by Jewish settlers.
It reaffirmed the Jordanian Hashemite's jurisdiction over all Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Waqf Department of the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf Islamic Affairs and Holy Places is solely entitled to manage the financial, religious and maintenance affairs of the purely Islamic site of Aqsa Mosque amounting in area to 144 sq. m, it pointed out.
The Council urged the supporters of the Israeli occupation authorities to stop providing them with munitions that could be used in atrocities against the Palestinians, otherwise, those countries would be accomplices in crimes against humanity.
The countries that have some nationals working with the Israeli occupation army against the Palestinian people, must bring those mercenaries to book and adopt legal action against them, the resolution urged.
The League's Council appreciated the efforts made by the Republic of South Africa to prosecute the Israeli occupation entity at the International Court of Justice for violating its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG).
It called on the peace-loving, law-abiding countries to back the legal steps initiated by South Africa, welcoming the decision of the Libyan Presidential Council to join the genocide case against Israel.
It called on the Arab and international bar associations and organizations to file lawsuits to national and international courts against perpetrators of crimes against the Palestinian people, and designate them as terrorists.
Regarding the Israeli aggression on Syria and Lebanon, the Council renewed condemnation of the recurrent attacks, the latest of which took place in Damascus on Saturday.
Such attacks undermine the sovereignty of Syria and pose serious threat to regional and international security, according to the Council's resolution.
The Council stressed that the only way to regional stability is through recognition of the Palestinians' legitimate and inalienable rights, notably the right to establish an independent, fully-sovereign and viable state within the pre-June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital city.
It praised the Qatari-Egyptian mediation efforts aiming to reach a durable ceasefire in Gaza Strip and deliver aid to the residents in Gaza.
It also appreciated the call of Algeria, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, for holding an emergency session by the Council to discuss the Israeli plans for forcible evacuation of the Gazans.
It also extolled the UAE successful lobbying, during its term as non-permanent member of the Council (2022-2023), for the Palestinian question, which led to the adoption of the Council resolutions 2712 and 2720 last year. (end) mfm

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