Egypt, UN reiterate necessity of ending Israeli 'violations' against civilians in Gaza

By Iyad Nabolsi

CAIRO (AA) - Egypt and the United Nations reiterated the necessity of ending Israeli “violations” against civilians in Gaza, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, in Cairo as part of her tour, which also includes Jordan.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Shoukry and Albanese “reiterate the necessity of ending Israeli violations against civilians in Gaza, sustaining full aid delivery and eliminating violence and attacks by Israeli settlers in West Bank.”

They also stressed “the necessity of stopping Israeli practices aimed at displacing Palestinians from their lands and implementing policies of collective punishment and indiscriminate targeting of civilians.”

Shoukry warned that the current state of affairs “increases the risks of the situation exploding in all of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

He expressed “regret that a number of countries have so far refrained from describing Israeli practices as a flagrant violation of international law.”

Albanese expressed “regret and condemnation for her inability to conduct a field visit to the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, as Israeli refusal prevented her from completing her mission,” according to the statement.

She further expressed “deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people in light of Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

She called on Israel “to comply with its obligations under international law as the occupying power.”

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 76,980 injured since then, according to Palestinian health authorities.​​​​​​​

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala