The secretary general of the Arab League has warned any seizure of the Gaza Strip or the occupied West Bank by Israel would mean “a confrontation for the next thousand years.”
Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Tuesday, Ahmed Aboul Gheit stressed that the displacement of the Palestinian population from the occupied territories by Israeli forces would lead to “a confrontation for the next thousand years.”
The top Arab official reiterated his warning of the “dangerous consequences” of Israel’s planned ground offensive into the crowded southern city of Rafah.
Aboul Gheit called on Israel to “empty the settlements” on Palestinian land as well.
Discussing the possibility of a two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state, he noted that the scenario would only be possible when Israel “dismantled its illegal settlements built on Palestinian land.”
He decried an “Israeli mentality” to try and seize land the Palestinians want for their future state.
He said that Israel’s actions in Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians had become a threat to the continuity of the peace agreements it signed with its neighbors, especially with countries such as Egypt and Jordan.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Arab League chief further pointed out that it was imperative that the US and the Western bloc asked Israel to stop its attacks and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“The United States must order Israel to stop these policies or otherwise the Middle East will explode in an unprecedented way,” he said.
“The (Israeli) occupation’s intentions to impose the reality of displacement on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who have taken refuge in Rafah as a last resort from indiscriminate attacks on civilians, is an open and completely rejected plan; it entails serious threats to regional stability,” he added.
Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military on Friday to prepare to evacuate civilians from Rafah ahead of a planned ground operation against the city.
Aid organizations, however, say such a move will be nearly impossible, given the scale of devastation elsewhere in Gaza and the huge number of people trapped in the besieged area.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned the deadly Israeli attack on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, saying the offensive was a “deepening of genocide” against the people of Palestine.
The movement held the US administration of President Joe Biden along with the Tel Aviv regime fully responsible for the massacre in Rafah.
International concerns are growing as Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah is looming large.
Israel presses ahead with its bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, taking the lives of more civilians in the besieged territory.
Since the start of the war, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 28,500 Palestinians, including more than 12,300 children and some 8,400 women.
Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.
