UN should urgently put an end to Israeli crimes against Palestinians, Iran’s envoy says

A senior official with Iran’s UN mission in Geneva has taken the floor of the Human Rights Council to denounce Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, calling on the world body to take urgent action to stop the regime’s atrocities.

“Over the past seven decades, Palestine has endured countless crimes, including massacre, ethnic cleansing, demographic change, systematic torture and arbitrary killing, in addition to all forms of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. It seems as though they have become Israel’s routine practice ever since the onset of its endless occupation [back in 1948],” Seyyed Mohammad Sadatinejad said at the Council’s 48th regular session on Saturday.

Sadatinejad, who is in charge of human rights affairs at Iran’s permanent mission to the UN office and other international organizations in Geneva, pointed to the inhumane treatment of hundreds of Palestinian children in Israeli-run prisons, saying the most common charge against the minors is stone-throwing.

Rearrested Palestinian inmates put in solitary confinement in Israeli jails, say lawyers

The six Palestinian prisoners, who recently tunneled their way out of a maximum security Israeli detention center and were all recaptured nearly two weeks later, are transferred to solitary confinement, lawyers say.

The Iranian diplomat criticized the international community for its inability to force the apartheid Israeli regime to abide by international law, saying such a failure underlines the need for UN human rights mechanisms to take immediate, decisive and effective measures to help end Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

Sadatinejad said justice-seeking and accountability for crimes committed against Palestinians should be part of the international community’s demand for an end to the catastrophe unfolding in the Palestinian territories.

“Advocates of Israel, including the United States, European states and Canada, which provide financial, military and political support to the regime, should also be held accountable for encouragement of crimes against Palestinians and obstruction of justice,” he said.

'7,000 Palestinian children arrested since 2015'

Meanwhile, the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs at the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said Israeli forces had arrested more than 7,000 Palestinian children since the outbreak of a new wave protests in al-Quds in October 2015.

Israeli forces attack anti-settlement protesters in West Bank

Israeli forces have attacked Palestinians taking part in a weekly anti-settlement protest in Beit Dajan, near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The commission said in a statement, issued on the 6th anniversary of the protests, that the number of Palestinian minors in Israeli detention centers had increased markedly.

It also pointed to the serious violations of Palestinian children’s rights, namely mass arrests, long prison sentences, and draconian punitive measures.

Since 2015, Israel has introduced regulations that would legalize long jail terms, and in some cases even life imprisonment for minors, the group said.

Head of the commission’s studies and documentation unit Abdul Nasser Farwana called on the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and international groups to intervene immediately and put an end to the Israeli regime’s measures against Palestinian children.

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails go on hunger strike, boycott courts

Under the so-called “administrative detention” policy, the Israeli regime has been detaining Palestinians without legal trial or charges for long periods of time.

Israeli prison authorities keep Palestinian inmates under deplorable conditions lacking proper hygienic standards. The prisoners have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment and repression.

There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk