The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in an extraordinary meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday termed the attack on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza a “war crime”, strongly rejecting the Israeli claims that it was not behind the bombing.
The extraordinary meeting of the OIC Executive Committee was held in Jeddah on Wednesday, the same day when US President Biden was in Israel for showing solidarity with the Jewish state, and his country vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Israeli atrocities.
To rub the salt on the Palestinians’ wounds, Biden endorsed Israeli claims that its forces didn’t bomb the hospital. But the OIC meeting co-chaired by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia challenged the Israeli and US version and squarely blamed Tel Aviv for the “brutal” attack.
Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani represented Pakistan at the urgent open-ended ministerial meeting of the OIC Executive Committee, strongly condemning the Israeli atrocities.
“Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he said.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, who was also attending the executive meeting, accused Israel of “intentionally” bombing the hospital, saying that the Gaza Strip’s residents were being subjected to genocide.
A joint communique issued after the meeting strongly criticised the UN Security Council for failing to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe but more importantly launched a broadside against the Israeli backers for their “double standards”.
The statement held Israel’s backers responsible for encouraging the Jewish state to commit atrocities with impunity. But the most significant part of the joint statement was the OIC’s rejection of Israeli claims on the Gaza hospital massacre.
The OIC, as per the joint statement, strongly condemned the blatant targeting by Israel’s brutal occupation forces of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza Strip that killed at least 500 innocent sick, injured, and displaced civilians.
The OIC’s joint communique stressed that the hospital bombing represented “a war crime, extermination, and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, ethics, and international and humanitarian instruments”.
It urged the international community to act swiftly and to hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for these heinous war crimes against the Palestinian people and humanity at large, calling for immediate intervention to halt the massacre.
“Israel, the occupying power, bears full responsibility for the fate of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the real tragedy they are subjected to under bombardment, siege, and starvation, without electricity, food, or clean water, while being forced to abandon their homes,” it said.
It also denounced Israel for its “policy of indiscriminate collective punishment that it applies in a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as its legal responsibilities as the occupying power in accordance with the Geneva Conventions”.
The OIC underscored the importance of preserving the lives of all civilians. It also demanded an end to the military escalation, lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip, and contributing urgently to the entry of relief and humanitarian aid for civilians.
The bloc rejected calls for the forced displacement of the Palestinian population from their land; thus transferring the crisis to neighbouring countries and exacerbating issue of Palestinian refugees.
It affirmed support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.
The 57-nation Muslim bloc expressed regret and condemnation of the failure of the UN Security Council and its inability to discharge its responsibilities by taking a decisive decision to halt the war crimes carried out by the Israeli occupying forces in the Palestinian territory.
It called upon the United Nations and the Security Council to assume its responsibilities and take urgent measures to ensure an end to the brutal and barbaric aggression against the Palestinian people, allow the entry of humanitarian aid and stop the escalating humanitarian catastrophe.
It warned against escalation in attacks by the Israeli army and settler terrorism, weaponised and protected by the occupation forces, in Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the West Bank. It demanded full protection of Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as prevention of the violation of the sanctity of sacred places in Al-Quds.
The OIC deplored the international positions that backed the brutal aggression against the Palestinian people, and grant Israel impunity, taking advantage of the double standards that provided cover for the occupying power and fuelled the conflict, which would only lead to increased violence and destruction.
In view of the deteriorating situation, the executive committee agreed to convene the Council of Foreign Ministers (OIC-CFM) in Jeddah to recommend measures to the 57-nation bloc on the renewed hostilities in the Middle East.
The executive committee convened after an overnight blast at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital caused by an Israeli air strike killed about 500 Palestinians, the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign on Oct 7.
As rage at the hospital carnage spread throughout the Middle East, the White House backed the Israeli claim that it was not behind the bombing, as US President Biden landed in Israel to show America’s solidarity with the Jewish state.
More than a million people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected Israel invasion that seeks to eliminate Hamas’ leadership after its deadly incursion earlier this month.
Aid groups warn an Israeli ground offensive could hasten a humanitarian crisis.
The war that began Oct 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides, with more than 4,000 dead. In a sign of boiling Arab anger, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called off their planned summit with Biden.
The White House said that a current intelligence assessment showed Israel was “not responsible” for the explosion at a Gaza hospital, but that information was still being collected. It said that the assessment was “based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information”.
In further support of Israel, the United States vetoed a UN resolution that would have condemned violence against all civilians in the war, including the Hamas attacks against Israel, and would have pushed for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that President Biden was in the region engaging in diplomacy to secure the release of hostages, prevent the conflict from spreading, and stress the need for protecting the civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government, on the request of Biden, decided to allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, saying that it would “not thwart” deliveries of food, water, and medicine as long as the supplies did not reach Hamas.
Biden on Wednesday said that Israel had agreed to allow humanitarian assistance to begin flowing into Gaza from Egypt with the understanding it would be subject to inspections and that it should go to civilians and not the Hamas.
“Let me be clear, if Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people,” Biden said.
The US president also said an additional $100 million in humanitarian assistance would be delivered to Gaza and the West Bank.
Simultaneously, the US announced sanctions against a group of 10 Hamas members and the Palestinian financial network across Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar as it responded to the surprise attack on Israel that left more than 1,400 people dead and 199 kidnapped.
At the destroyed al-Ahli Hospital, the Gaza health ministry was still trying to firm up a final death toll from the Israeli bombing. It revised the death toll down from 500 to 471 but did not elaborate on how authorities reached that figure.
Staff members at the al-Ahli Hospital said they could not gauge the toll because the blast had “dismembered so many bodies”. Many survivors recounted that their friends were “torn to pieces” by the blast. “No one knows anyone,” said a survivor. “They became pieces, all of those poor people, civilian citizens.”
Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan praised the cancelling of a summit in Jordan between Arab governments and the US President. He called for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Israel to “rise up against the Zionist enemy and clash with it in all cities, villages, and camps”.
Meanwhile, fierce Israeli airstrikes continued to hit houses in Gaza City and the southern border town of Rafah.
Near the port, survivors said an Israeli air strike hit a three-story building belonging to the Haboush family, killing 40 people and wounding 25 others.
In the central Gaza Strip, an air strike hit a bakery at the Nuseirat refugee camp, igniting a massive fire in which four bakers were killed. Dozens of other bakeries across Gaza were forced to shut down due to lack of water and electricity.
The Palestinian interior ministry in Gaza said Israel renewed airstrikes before dawn on Wednesday.
At least 37 people were killed following the attacks in the al-Qasasib and Halima al-Saadia areas of Jabalia, north of Gaza, it said.
A Hezbollah spokesperson said the Lebanese Red Cross had collected the remains of four of the group’s men, who were pronounced dead on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad group denied Israel’s claim that it was behind the deadly blast at al-Ahli Hospital. (WITH INPUT FROM AGENCIES)
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