Hamas hails UN committee statement slamming Israeli crimes against Palestinians

A senior official of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has lauded a recent statement by a UN committee that declared it was “appalled” by the growing number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories.

Basem Naim, the head of Hamas’ Department of Politics and Foreign Relations, welcomed on Saturday the end-of-mission statement of the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories

“The statement of the committee constitutes a significant step towards exposing and prosecuting repeated Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people in addition to achieving the rights of the Palestinian people,” Naim said as quoted in a report by the Palestinian Information Center.

The senior Hamas official further affirmed that crimes against the Palestinian people by the occupying Israeli regime -- including killing, land confiscation, arbitrary arrest, and settlement expansion policies -- are part of the racist agenda of the illegitimate entity.

The statement was issued after the UN Special Committee’s visit to the occupied Palestinian territories as tensions escalated by the Tel Aviv regime since the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Over the past months, the Israeli regime has intensified attacks against Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. As a result of these attacks, dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.

Most of the raids have targeted the cities of Nablus and Jenin in the occupied West Bank, where the regime’s forces have been trying to stifle a growing Palestinian resistance against the occupation.

One of the objectives of Israeli raids on various locations across the occupied West Bank has been to raze the structures that belong to the Palestinians, whom the regime accuses of killing Zionist settlers.

As a result of these attacks, over 160 Palestinians, including 28 children, have lost their lives and many others have been arrested in 2023.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian youth, injure two others in raid on Nablus city

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man and injured two others during a military raid on the West Bank city of Nablus.

Prisoners’ association slams Knesset’s bill

In another development on Saturday, a Gaza-based foundation for prisoners censured the Israeli regime’s attempts to approve a bill aimed at handing down prison sentences to Palestinian minors.

Waed Prisoners’ Affairs Association condemned in a press statement the Israeli Knesset’s intention to draft a bill that allows jailing Palestinian children as young as 12, saying the bid reflects the fascist policies practiced by the Israeli regime against Palestinian children.

The statement added that the Israeli occupation forces already detain Palestinian children and subject them to field interrogation and brutal treatment in violation of all international laws and conventions.

The association said 180 Palestinian children under the minimum age of criminal responsibility are held in Israeli jails and systematically persecuted in military courts.

Waed called on international organizations, especially UNICEF, to act urgently and provide protection for Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) is expected on Sunday to debate the bill put forward by Yitzhak Kreuzer of Otzma Yehudit party. The bill allows the imprisonment of the aforementioned minors on charges of taking part in retaliatory operations in the occupied al-Quds.

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