Esther Salifu
The Ambassador of the Embassy of Palestine, Abdullah M Shawesh has said Israel’s refusal to cooperate with the UN Commission of Inquiry, ignoring nine requests for information, is a concern development that perpetuates the ongoing genocide in Gaza
Speaking during a press briefing, Shawesh said the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, backed by the US, has reached catastrophic proportions.
He said : “As of October 15, 2024, the casualty toll surpasses 42,227 Palestinians killed and 98,464 injured, predominantly women and children.
“In the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 11,300 are detained, with 9,392 administrative detentions, 425 women, 745 children and 112 media correspondents, 59 still imprisoned.
“The world has seen the images of patients and displaced persons, sheltering near Al Aqsa hospital, burning alive… If such horror does not awaken our sense of humanity and propel us to action, what will?” – OCHA before the Security Council.
The ambassador however disclosed that the US Special Envoy Lise Grande shockingly stated that the US won’t withhold weapons from Israel despite blocking food and medicine.
As of October 14, citing Save the Children, “Up to 400,000 Palestinians were … trapped across northern Gaza, with at least 300 people reportedly killed in nine days of bombardment, and a hospital sheltering thousands ablaze in the south with no end in sight to the incessant attacks on civilians…. In the so-called “humanitarian zone” in the south, patients and families sheltering in tents were on engulfed by a massive fire triggered by an Israeli airstrike with reports of deaths and multiple causalities.
According to him, Ninety-nine American medical professionals witnessed the atrocities firsthand, signing an open letter to the US President and Vice President.
They described malnourished mothers feeding underweight newborns formula made with poisonous water and women undergoing deliveries without anesthesia.
“On October, 2024, 99 American medical professionals who voluntarily served in Gaza since October 7 signed an open letter to the US president and vice president. Among the many facts they raised about the catastrophic situation in Gaza, they also stated, and I quote:
“It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population…In Gaza we watched malnourished mothers feed their underweight newborns infant formula made with poisonous water.…. Women underwent vaginal deliveries and even C-sections without anesthesia and were given nothing but Tylenol afterwards because no other pain medications were available. We wish to be absolutely clear: not once did any of us see any type of Palestinian militant activity in any of Gaza’s hospitals or other healthcare facilities”.
“ The international community’s inaction perpetuates this genocide. As Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
“The USA-backed Israeli occupation, right in front of the world’s eye, is intended to tame the international community’s consciousness and make the ongoing televised genocide the Status Quo and business as usual”, Shawesh added.
