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Author Topic: International condemnation of Israel grows.............  (Read 559 times)

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socafighter

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International condemnation of Israel grows.............
« on: August 05, 2014, 09:08:09 AM »

International outrage over Israel's bombardment of Gaza continued to grow today as the world reeled from news that a third deadly attack on a UN school sheltering fleeing Palestinians killed ten yesterday, including children.

The U.S. State Department was first to condemn the bombing, on the compound in the southern town of Rafah that was sheltering 3,000 Palestinian refugees, as 'appalling' and 'disgraceful' as it pleaded with Israel to take more care to avoid civilian casualties.

Hours later, David Cameron joined the chorus of disapproval with his own message to Tel Aviv in which he backed UN chief Ban Ki-moon's condemnation of the attack as 'a moral outrage', but stopped short of agreeing that it was a 'criminal act'.

But the starkest condemnation of Israeli actions came from allies, France, whose foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, branded the 'killing of children and slaughter of civilians' as unjustifiable.

'How many more deaths will it take to stop what must be called the carnage in Gaza?' Fabius said in a statement. 'The tradition of friendship between Israel and France is an old one and Israel's right to security is total, but this right does not justify the killing of children and the slaughter of civilians.'
France is closely allied with Israel, and Fabius' statement was a rare direct criticism. The Gaza war, now in its fourth week, has killed more than 1,800 Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis.

He added: 'This is why we need a political solution, of which the components are known, and which I believe should be imposed by the international community, because the two parties - despite countless efforts - have unfortunately shown themselves incapable of completing talks.'
It came as a spokeswoman for David Cameron said Britain is reviewing all arms export licences to Israel in response to the Jewish state's escalating conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
According to a report by a British parliamentary committee last month, outstanding government-approved contracts for export of dual use or military goods to Israel are worth more than £7.8billion . These include contracts to supply body armour, drone components, and missile parts.

'Clearly the current situation has changed compared to when some licences will have been granted, and we're reviewing those existing licences against the current situation but no decisions have been taken beyond going back again and reviewing,' the spokeswoman said.
Earlier, the British Prime Minister said he supported UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon's condemnation of the attack in Rafah as 'a moral outrage and a criminal act'.

He said: 'I think the UN is right to speak out in the way that it has, because international law is very clear that there must not be the targeting of civilians or the targeting of schools if that is what has happened. The UN as the international body is right to speak out in the way it has.'
Pressed on whether he regarded the attack as a 'criminal act', Mr Cameron replied: 'The UN has spoken very clearly and I think they are right to speak very clearly...
'I'm not an international lawyer, so that's up to international lawyers. But international law is very, very clear that the use of force always has to be proportionate and civilians should not be targeted.'
Mr Cameron said the Government had been 'very clear that there needs to be an immediate comprehensive humanitarian ceasefire, that we want this conflict to stop'.
'We obviously do think it is appalling the loss of life that there has been,' he said. 'From the start, though, we have also made the point that if the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel stop then that would be probably the fastest way to stop this conflict.'

Mr Cameron's comments echoed those of State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, who last night said: 'The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons,' said State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, in a statement issued on Sunday.

'The coordinates of the school, like all UN facilities in Gaza, have been repeatedly communicated to the Israeli Defense Forces. We once again stress that Israel must do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties.'   
She called for a 'full and prompt' investigation of the incident.
Witnesses to Sunday's attack said a missile that looked like a rocket struck an area just outside the gates of the Rafah Preparatory A Boys School where children were queuing to buy sweets and biscuits from stalls.
Inside the U.N. school's compound, several bodies, among them children, were strewn across the ground in puddles of blood. 'Our trust and our fate are only in the hands of God!' one woman cried.

Robert Turner, director of operations for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said the building had been providing shelter for some 3,000 people - the same number that had been seeking refuge at a girl's school in Jabaliya last Wednesday when it too came under attack from a barrage of Israeli missiles.

He said the strike killed at least one U.N. staffer.
'The locations of all these installations have been passed to the Israeli military multiple times,' Turner said. 'They know where these shelters are. How this continues to happen, I have no idea.'
The Israeli army - which says it has launched an investigation into the attack - claimed it had targeted three members of Islamic Jihad on a motorbike, contradicting witnesses who said no such vehicle was in the area when the bomb fell.
Israel launched its military operation in Gaza on July 8 in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire, carrying out hundreds of airstrikes across the crowded seaside territory. It then sent in ground forces July 17 in what it said was a mission to destroy the tunnels used by Hamas to carry out attacks.
Hamas has fired more than 3,000 rockets into Israel during what has turned into the bloodiest round of fighting ever between the two enemies.
The Israeli military said early Monday it would hold fire for a seven-hour 'humanitarian window' beginning at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), saying the truce would not apply to areas where troops were still operating. The military said it would respond to any attacks during that time.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on against Hamas, he is coming under international pressure to halt the fighting because of the heavy civilian death toll.
U.N. officials say more than three-quarters of the dead have been civilians, including the 10 people killed yesterday at the U.N. school in Rafah.
In the current round of fighting, U.N. shelters have been struck by fire seven times. UNRWA, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, says Israel has been the source of fire in all instances. But it also has said it found caches of rockets in vacant UNRWA schools three times.
Israel accuses Hamas of using civilian areas for cover and says the Islamic militant group is responsible for the heavy death toll because it has been using civilians as 'human shields.'


 

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