Ashrawi strongly condemns Israel’s murder of six Palestinians in the last hours

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi strongly condemns Israel’s murder of six Palestinians in the last twenty-four hours.

“The deliberate murder of six Palestinians by Israeli forces in the last twenty-four hours is yet another escalation in the Israeli occupation’s brutality and inhumanity.

As Muhammad Zaghloul al-Khatib al-Rimawi (24) from the occupied West Bank village of Beit Rima slept in his bed, he was brutally attacked and beaten to death in front of his family by Israeli occupation soldiers in the middle of the night. Unarmed Muhammad Yousif Alayan (26) from the Qalandiya refugee camp was shot in cold blood by Israeli forces for defending himself against an Israeli settler.

Muhammad Ahmad Abu Naji (34) and Ahmad Muhammad Muhsin Omar (20) were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the northern besieged Gaza Strip while peacefully participating in a demonstration against Israel’s unlawful and immoral eleven-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Naji Jamil Abu Assi (18) and Alaa Ziyad Abu Assi (21) were shelled and killed in an airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip on Monday night.

Emboldened by the total support of the US administration, Israel has stepped up its criminality and policy of summary executions targeting Palestine’s innocent victims with deliberate cruelty and impunity.

The international community is urged to end Israel’s devaluation of Palestinian lives and to abandon its double standard when it comes to the loss of life, regardless of nationality or religion.

We appeal to the ICC to take immediate action and open an official and criminal investigation into such widespread and flagrant war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed throughout occupied Palestine.

We also call on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention and the United Nations to investigate Israel’s egregious violations, lawlessness and provocative acts and hold it accountable with punitive measures and sanctions.

This is further proof that the Palestinians require urgent protection from Israel’s criminal campaign and decades-long military occupation. However, the real solution remains in ending the occupation and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination in a free and sovereign state on their own land with Jerusalem as its capital.”