FG Joins Arab, Islamic Nations in Opposing Israel’s Military Offensive in Gaza

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit, which convened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has condemned Israel’s military offensive in Gaza as war crimes and barbaric killings of Palestinians, while it also called for a convening of an international peace conference through which a realistic peace would be launched.
The Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit was attended by Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as well as other prominent government figures and diplomats.

A statement yesterday by the Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Rabiu Ibrahim, said the leaders of the Summit from Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the League of the Arab States, called for an immediate halt to all Israeli military operations in Gaza and rejected any rationalisation of the war, claiming it was a continuation of the 1967 aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Al-Quds Al-Sharif, and East Jerusalem.

It added that the Summit demanded for a decisive and binding resolution by the United Nations Security Council that would impose a cessation of aggression and put an end to Israeli occupation practices that violate international law, international humanitarian law, and international legitimacy resolutions, the most recent of which is UNGA Resolution No. AES-101.25 dated October 26, 2013

The Summit charged the UN Security Council to adopt an immediate resolution condemning Israel’s barbaric destruction of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the prevention of the entry of medicine, food and fuel into it, and the cutting- off of electricity, water supply and basic services, including communication and internet services, being a collective punishment that constitutes a war crime under international law.”

It said failure to heed to the demands amounts to legitimisation of Israel’s violent onslaught, which ends in the deaths of innocent people, children, the elderly, and women, and the destruction of Gaza, adding that it was imperative for Israel to lift the blockade it had imposed on the Gaza Strip for years.
The Summit also condemned some nations’ shipment of arms and ammunition to Israel, which it said had been used to commit horrific crimes such as the killing of Palestinians and the destruction of their houses, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and other facilities, asking, the International Criminal Court Prosecutor to complete the investigation into Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people in all occupied Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds.

In addition, it condemned the killings of journalists, children and women as well as the targeting of paramedics, and urged the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate Israel’s intentional use of banned chemical weapons on the civilian population in Gaza.

The General Secretariats of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States was mandated to establish two joint specialised legal monitoring units to document the crimes, with a view to, “Prepare legal arguments regarding all violations of international law and international humanitarian law committed by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds.