Alwaght- A senior United Nations official has slammed Israeli regime’s punitive demolition of the homes of Palestinians terming the move “inherently unjust” and against international law.
Robert Piper, the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said in a statement on Monday that, “I am distressed by reports of punitive demolitions carried out by Israeli security forces of five homes in the Jerusalem, Nablus, and Ramallah governorates in the last few days.” He noted that 20 Palestinians, eight of them children, were made homeless in the past three days adding that two Palestinians were reported killed and nine others injured in clashes today protesting against the demolition.
According to the statement, punitive demolitions are a form of collective penalty as they effectively punish not only the alleged perpetrators but also relatives, neighbors for acts they have not committed. Collective penalties are prohibited under international law.
In a related development, two UN experts on Monday voiced grave concern over continuing violence in the Occupied Palestinian territories, noting that excessive force by Israelis when apprehending Palestinian suspects “including some which appear to amount to summary executions.”
They called on Israeli authorities to carry out “independent, thorough, prompt and impartial investigations into all suspected cases of extra-judicial, arbitrary and summary executions, and to provide compensation to the victims or their families.”
Makarim Wibisono and Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and on summary executions respectively, called on the Israeli regime to strictly observe international law. They slammed the alleged shooting death of a Palestinian during an undercover arrest operation in a Hebron hospital last week.
Since the beginning of October, almost 90 Palestinians have been brutally killed by Israeli regime forces and extremist settlers during the ongoing Intifada or uprising. 13 Israelis have been killed in revenge attacks revenge attacks by Palestinians while some have been shot and killed by Israeli forces in the ensuing confusion.
The recent al-Quds Intifada has been triggered to end the temporal and spatial division of al-Aqsa Mosque, the Israeli settlement construction, the Judaization schemes, and Israeli regime's brutal attacks on Palestinians.
