NAIROBI – Palestine Embassy in Kenya has blamed Israel for the escalation of the conflict in Gaza into a full-scale war, saying it is a result of “its undeterred criminal provocations over many months”. Â
Through a statement to the press, the embassy in Nairobi said since the beginning of this year, Israeli military forces and militias were directly responsible of killing dozens of innocent civilians, many of whom were children. Â
“Israel has also been targeting the Palestinian people on daily basis through destroying properties, livelihoods, and already fragile infrastructure through its military invasions of our cities and villages,” the embassy said.Â
It added that government officials have repeatedly uttered statements that encourage Israeli militants’ provocations against Muslim and Christian religious sites in defiance to the condemnations from the international community, including Israel’s long-standing allies.Â
In early March, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich caused uproar with his call for a Palestinian village to be “erased”, with the US State Department saying the remarks amounted to incitement to violence. It asked Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly disavow it.
An ultranationalist in Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, Smotrich made the comments at a conference on amid a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks and Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Later that month, an Israeli minister with responsibility for administrating the occupied West Bank drew condemnation after he said there was no Palestinian history or culture and no such thing as a Palestinian people.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also angered neighbouring Jordan for speaking at a podium covered in what appeared to be a variation of the Israeli flag that showed an Israeli state with expanded boundaries that included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Jordan.
The embassy further said Israeli military forces and militias international intervention to resolve the roots of the conflict is a recipe for prolonging the suffering and jeopardizes the prospects of achieving the aspired lasting peace.
“Over the past weeks, months, and years the Palestinian leadership has repeatedly warned from the dangerous consequences of the international silence vis a vis the crimes and violations perpetrated on daily basis by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian People.
“We have warned from the level of despair and anger that has been fed by the criminal irresponsible actions of the Occupation against every aspect of Palestinian lives,” it said.
Israel and Hamas are engaged in a new cycle of escalating violence, which Netanyahu has now termed as war, after a surprise attack on Saturday involving aerial, sea and ground operations, initiated by the Palestinian group from the Gaza Strip.
Israel has responded with a deadly bombardment of the blockaded coastal enclave, Al Jazeera reports.
Hamas said it had fired 5,000 rockets, while Israel confirmed that the group’s fighters had entered its territory.
On Sunday, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah exchanged artillery and rocket fire, while in Alexandria, two Israeli tourists were shot dead along with their Egyptian guide, according to Reuters.
Several Israeli media outlets, citing rescue service officials, on Sunday said at least 600 people were killed in Israel, including 44 soldiers, while officials in Gaza said 313 people had died in the territory. Some 2,000 people have been wounded on each side
Palestine embassy, in blaming Israel, said they have been provoking them by targeting the Palestinian people on daily basis through destroying properties, livelihoods, and already fragile infrastructure through its military invasions of our cities and villages.
“Failure to bring Israel to comply with UN Security resolutions, and providing it with unprecedented impunity has encouraged this illegal and immoral occupation to develop to an Apartheid regime as labelled and recognized lately by all international specialized organizations as well as many Israeli academics and ex -Security officials,”it said.
The US, the US, EU and many other western states have condemned the attack, while the African Union maintained the denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, particularly that of an independent and sovereign State, is the main cause of the permanent Israeli-Palestinian tension.
Expressing his concern at the outbreak of the current Israeli-Palestinian hostilities, African Union Commission Chairperson Mousa Faki said the fighting is causing grave consequences for the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians in particular, and for peace in the region, in general.
To this end, the Palestinian mission said failure to see the escalation as a direct result to the violations perpetrated by Israel, will only encourage it to subject Palestinians to more brutality, collective punishment, and deprivation from our internationally recognized right in self-determination and independence.
“Selective reference to international law and international humanitarian law in favor of Israel, the internationally recognized occupation power that is in violation of every relevant security council resolution, is shameful as it ignores the legal and moral responsibilities of Israel since its establishment and throughout over six decades of occupation of the internationally defined Palestinian territory,” it said.
