The African Union (AU) has denounced the Israeli regime’s “most flagrant” violation of international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip, calling for an end immediate end to the ongoing war in the besieged territory.
AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat made the remarks during a speech at a summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on Saturday, alongside the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
“Rest assured, we strongly condemn these attacks that are unprecedented in the history of mankind,” Faki said.
“We want to reassure you of our solidarity with the people of Palestine,” he added while accusing Israel of having “exterminated” Gaza’s inhabitants.
Azali Assoumani, president of the Comoros and the outgoing chairperson of the African Union, also condemned “the genocide Israel is committing in Palestine under our nose.”
“The international community cannot close its eyes to the atrocities that are committed that have not only created chaos in Palestine but also have had disastrous consequences in the rest of the world,” he said.
Assoumani also praised the case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Meanwhile, Shtayyeh called on the AU to demand an end to Israel’s ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people.
“Let the voice of Africa and the voice of your union be loud for the freedom of Palestine and the right of its people to self-determination and the embodiment of the Palestinian state and its recognition as a member state of the United Nations,” he said in his speech at the AU summit.
He further urged the AU to push to stop the war on Gaza, particularly the happenings in the southern city of Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are now living, mostly in makeshift tents.
“Israel is an apartheid state and a state of racial discrimination in law and practice,” Shtayyeh said.
“Israel is killing out of revenge, after 134 days of aggression, and wants to continue killing for as long as possible to serve (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s position as prime minister, this must not be allowed,” he added.
The Palestinian prime minister also called for “boycotting settlement products and settlement institutions and settlers.”
He also praised countries that placed some settlers on “terrorist” lists, while calling for a halt to Israeli settlements expansion in the occupied West Bank.
Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
So far, the occupying regime has killed over 28,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured about 70,000 others.
The Tel Aviv regime has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
