The African Union condemned the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, expressing its support for an independent international investigation into Israeli violations of international humanitarian law.
The final statement of the 37th African Union summit held in Addis Ababa said:”We strongly condemn Israel, the occupying military power, for its brutal war on the Gaza Strip following the attack of October 7, 2023, and its use of excessive and disproportionate force against 2.2 million unarmed civilians, resulting in the death and injury of thousands, including children, women and the elderly.
“We reject the Israeli violation of international humanitarian law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention, by targeting hospitals, medical centers, media facilities, and the use of internationally prohibited weapons, and we support an independent international investigation into these violations,”the statement added.
The statement condemned ” Israeli policies of collective punishment measures against civilians, especially attempts to forcibly transfer the population of Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula,” noting that these policies require immediate international intervention and response.
The Israeli army has been continuing military operations against the Gaza Strip since the seventh of last October, when the Palestinian Hamas movement, which controls the Strip, announced the start of the “Al-Aqsa flood” operation.
Thousands of rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel and its forces stormed Israeli settlements adjacent to the Strip, killing about 1,200 Israelis and capturing about 250 others.
The fighting broke through a 7-day truce brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, during which prisoners of women and children were exchanged and agreed amounts of aid were brought into the Gaza Strip, before military operations were renewed on the first of last December.
Israel responded by officially declaring war on the Gaza Strip, starting it with devastating shelling, and then ground military operations inside the Strip, which resulted in about 28 thousand dead and more than 67 thousand injured among the residents of the Strip.
Source: Sputnik
