Tabnak – Four days after the Zionists’ crackdown on the Palestinian protesters in Gaza, various international bodies, states and groups have condemned the way Tel Aviv is dealing with the Palestinians. In this vein, Iran has vowed to continue its support for the Palestinian cause.
In this vein, Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Israel’s killing of Palestinian protesters as “unlawful” and “calculated,” saying those officials who authorized the Israeli military to use lethal force ahead of the mass rallies in Gaza are to blame for the bloodshed.
The New York-based rights organization said in a report on Tuesday that both before and after Friday’s deadly clashes in Gaza, the Israeli officials had publicly said that soldiers had orders to target the Palestinians who approached the fence with the blockaded enclave.
“The high number of deaths and injuries was the foreseeable consequence of granting soldiers leeway to use lethal force outside of life-threatening situations in violation of international norms, coupled with the longstanding culture of impunity within the Israeli army for serious abuses,” HRW said.
The United Nations Security Council also held an urgent meeting on Saturday to discuss the situation in Gaza, but the 15-member body failed to condemn the Israeli bloodshed.
Meanwhile, Palestine’s Hamas resistance movement has urged the Arab League to file a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israel over its recent killings of over a dozen Palestinians during anti-occupation mass rallies in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’ call comes on the eve of an emergency Arab League meeting on the Gaza carnage. Saeed Abu Ali, the 22-member pan-Arab body’s assistant secretary general for Palestine and the occupied Arab territories, told the Palestinian Wafa news agency that the meeting will focus on “the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people.”
In another related development, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iranians have made the Palestinian cause an ideal of their own, stressing that the Islamic Republic will never compromise on this issue.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran sees the problems of Palestine as its own, like all other friends and neighboring Muslims, and their security and freedom as its own security and freedom," Zarif said in an article in the Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper published on Monday.
On Friday, Gazans marched to the fence with the occupied lands at the start of a six-week protest, dubbed “The Great March of Return,” demanding the right to return for Palestinians driven out of their homeland.
Friday’s demonstrations turned violent after Israeli forces used tear gas and live fire against the Palestinians, killing 18 and injuring almost 1,500 Gazans.
