Hamas hails UN report on Israeli violations against Palestinians

By Nour Abu Eisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Resistance group Hamas on Sunday called on the international community to intervene to halt Israeli violations against Palestinians.

The call came after a UN report highlighted Israeli violations, settler violence and settlement building in the Palestinian territories.

On Friday, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories said it ended a 4-day mission in Jordan after Israel denied its delegation access into the Palestinian territories.

A report by the committee highlighted all forms of Israeli violations against the Palestinians, their lands and resources, as well as settler violence and settlement expansion in the occupied territories.

"In the Gaza Strip, 15 years of the land, sea and air blockade and closures have effectively trapped 2.1 million Palestinians in what Gazan and international civil society organisations describe as an “open-air prison”," the report said.

In a statement, Hamas welcomed the UN report “which documents crimes and violations against the Palestinian land and people, including systematic torture of detainees, the policies of discrimination and apartheid, home demolition and theft of natural resources."

The Palestinian group appealed to the international community to hold Israeli leaders accountable as "war criminals" and to ensure they "don't have impunity."

The Committee was established in 1968 by a UN General Assembly resolution. Since then, Israel denied entry to the committee into the Palestinian territories.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar