Arab League Secretary-General condemns Israeli escalation in Palestine and Lebanon and warns of regional slide
Cairo, August 13 (KUNA) -- Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy condemned on Thursday the Israeli occupation’s escalation in Palestinian territories and its continued violations in southern Lebanon, warning that the region is sliding into a difficult-to-contain trajectory.
In a statement, Fahmy decried the occupation forces’ continued raids, arrests, and home demolitions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, alongside the escalating violence by settlers against Palestinians and their property. He also condemned the daily violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, including raids carried out by settler groups under the protection of occupation police, coinciding with the imposition of stringent restrictions on worshippers’ entry, warning against any interference with the historical and legal status quo at the mosque.
He pointed to the establishment by settlers of a outpost in front of Palestinian homes in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus in the West Bank, and the siege of families inside their homes, emphasizing that the attacks by occupation forces and settler violence are part of a unified strategy aimed at annexing land, imposing new facts on the ground, and thwarting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Fahmy placed full responsibility for these attacks on the Israeli occupation government, as the occupying power, which bears the obligation under international law to protect the civilian population in occupied territories.
Regarding southern Lebanon, Fahmy described the continued Israeli attacks as a continuous chain of transgressions and recourse to violence, citing the bombing of the eastern Zgharta municipality building, a public school, a clinic, a daycare center, and several homes. He stressed that the deliberate targeting of infrastructure and civilian facilities constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, a breach of existing understandings, and an impediment to the deployment of the Lebanese Army and the return of residents to their towns.
He called on the international community, and the UN Security Council in particular, to take urgent action to counter the illegal Israeli practices in the occupied territories and neighboring countries. (End) MM / TM A
