There are at least 1,083 administrative detainees and 160 child prisoners behind Israeli bars.
Qatar has urged the global community to work towards ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine, a statement published on Monday said, condemning the occupying state’s “racist” policies towards Palestinians.
The Gulf state’s renewed condemnation of Israel’s continuous violations came during an interactive dialogue attended by Qatar’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, Dr. Hend Al Muftah, on the human rights situation in the occupied 1967 Palestinian territories.
The event in Geneva took place a week after Israel waged the deadliest attack in the Jenin refugee camp in years, in which occupation forces (IOF) killed at least 12 Palestinians, including five minors, while injuring more than 100 others.
“Qatar reiterated its strong condemnation of the recent Israeli aggression on the Jenin camp, the displacement of Palestinian families, and the killing of children, considering that a new episode in a series of attacks, war crimes, and continuous violations against the Palestinian people,” the Qatari official said, as cited by a foreign ministry statement.
The latest attack has been widely labelled as the most significant assault on the Jenin refugee camp in over 20 years. The Palestinian presidency had described it as “a new war crime” against “defenceless people”.
The Gulf state stressed at the Geneva event that the assault is yet another “flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions and the Geneva Conventions.”
“Her Excellency said that the continuation of the occupation, racist, and settlement aggressions and policies would lead to the deterioration of conditions, increase the risk of spreading violence,” the statement added.
Dr. Al Muftah echoed Qatar’s calls for the international community to condemn Israel’s attacks, end the occupation, release and compensate Palestinian detainees, and lift the years-long siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
“The international community has to work to end the occupation, the policies of collective punishment, and the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and to stop arbitrary detention, administrative detention, torture, and ill-treatment against Palestinian detainees and prisoners, especially children,” the statement added.
There are at least 1,083 administrative detainees and 160 child prisoners behind Israeli bars, per the latest figures shared by Palestine’s Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
“Furthermore, the international community has to take the necessary measures to protect the Palestinian people and ensure that all those responsible for the violations and crimes committed against them are held accountable,” Qatar said.
Since last year, Israel has intensified its attacks on the West Bank and has launched almost daily assaults targeting Palestinian resistance groups.
On Tuesday, the IOF shot and injured a Palestinian and detained two others during another military raid in the refugee camp of Askar, east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. The raid came a day after Israeli forces shot and killed 33-year-old Palestinian Bilal Ibrahim Qadah.
“Israeli reports claimed Qadah was trying to throw an explosive device when he was shot, which is an excuse the Israeli army often gives when shooting Palestinians,” WAFA reported on Monday.
In 2022 alone, Israeli forces killed more than 170 Palestinians, making it the deadliest year within the targeted areas since 2006. Separately, Israel killed 49 Palestinians, including 17 children, in Gaza during a three-day bombardment last year.
