This came in a final statement issued by the extraordinary meeting of the Council of the League of Arab States at the level of permanent delegates, held in Cairo at the request of the State of Palestine, to discuss mechanisms for Arab action against Israel's plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip.
The meeting called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop the genocide and starvation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday morning, the Israeli security cabinet approved a plan to begin occupying Gaza City, displacing its population of approximately one million to the south, then encircling the city and carrying out incursions into residential areas.
This will be followed by a second phase, which includes the occupation of refugee camps in central Gaza, large parts of which have been destroyed by Israel, as part of an ongoing war with US support since October 7, 2023.
The Council of the League of Arab States expressed its condemnation of "the decisions and plans of the Israeli occupation government to impose complete military control over the Gaza Strip, displace the Palestinian people, and commit crimes of aggression, genocide, and ethnic cleansing committed by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including the city of Jerusalem."
The Council affirmed that "these decisions and plans constitute a violation of international law and international conventions, a blatant aggression against all Arab states, their national security, and their political and economic interests, and a threat to security, peace, and stability in the region." It welcomed the international positions and statements that declared their rejection of the Israeli decision to occupy the Gaza Strip and the occupation's measures and policies to annex the West Bank.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The genocide left 61,430 Palestinian martyrs and 153,213 wounded, most of them children and women. More than 9,000 people were missing, hundreds of thousands were displaced, and a famine killed 217 people, including 100 children.
The Arab statement renewed its support for the ongoing efforts of the joint Egyptian-Qatari mediation to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.
On July 24, Israel withdrew from indirect negotiations with Hamas in Doha following Tel Aviv's intransigence regarding the withdrawal from Gaza, ending the war, Palestinian prisoners, and the mechanism for distributing humanitarian aid.
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The occupation continues its raids in several areas, and new settlement outposts are established in the West Bank.
Pressure on Israel
The Arab statement called on "the international community, especially the United States, to pressure Israel, the occupying power, to halt its aggression and crimes against the Palestinians, including genocide, starvation, and displacement, and to end its illegal occupation, as it is the state most capable of achieving this."
He stressed the need to implement the decisions of the Arab summits and the joint Arab-Islamic summits to break the Israeli siege on Gaza and to impose the entry of sufficient humanitarian relief convoys to the entire Strip by land, sea and air, in cooperation with the United Nations and its specialized agencies, including UNRWA.
He also condemned Israel's use of starvation as a weapon of genocide, which killed 200 Palestinian civilians, half of them children, "as well as the death traps set by the occupying forces under the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which have claimed the lives of 1,500 martyrs and wounded thousands more."
Since March 2, Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza, preventing the entry of any humanitarian aid. This has plunged the Strip into a state of famine, despite the backlog of aid trucks at its borders and the limited quantities allowed in, which do not meet the minimum needs of the population.
The Council stressed the "necessity of enabling the State of Palestine to assume full governance responsibilities in the Gaza Strip, as well as in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with Arab and international support, ensuring the unity of the system, the law, and the weapons, within the framework of the political program of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."
The Council called on "the two Arab members of the Security Council, Algeria and Somalia, and the Arab Group in New York, to continue their commendable efforts to halt the Israeli aggression, including submitting a draft resolution to the Security Council obligating Israel, the occupying power, to cease fire, allow sufficient and unconditional relief aid into the entire Gaza Strip, and end the occupation."
The Council urged all states to implement legal and administrative measures, including prohibiting the export, transfer, or transit of arms, ammunition, and military materials to Israel, reviewing economic relations with it, and conducting national and international investigations and prosecutions of Israeli officials responsible for crimes against the Palestinian people.
The Arab resolution also urged "civil society organizations, human rights organizations, and international organizations around the world to track down all those involved in Israel's aggressive war crimes and hold them accountable."
