Pars Today

Pars Today - In the past six months, the countless crimes of the Zionists on one hand, and the inaction of countries and international organizations in the face of the war crimes committed by Israel, are astonishing, and this passivity and support has led to greater cruelty of Israel in the Occupied Territories. The Israeli regime, whose foundation is colonial and its dissolution is a human and international necessity.

Apart from about 33,500 martyrs, more than 75,000 injured, and seven thousand missing, and the extensive destruction and devastation of Gaza over the past six months, Israel's crimes on April 1st, can be investigated from various aspects and can change many of the existing equations of the Gaza war. 

On this date, the regime of Israel violated the Geneva Convention, the Vienna Convention, and the Rome Statute all at once.

First: The Israeli army announced on the morning of April 1st that it had successfully completed its two-week operation in the Al-Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza and had withdrawn from there. 

The two-week siege and attack on the Al-Shifa Hospital caused the complete destruction and disabling of this medical complex. The hospital was not only a place for treating patients and the wounded, but after Israel's attack on Gaza, it also became a safe haven for thousands of homeless Palestinian refugees.

After the withdrawal of Israeli forces, dozens of bodies were found inside and outside the hospital with their hands and feet tied and signs of torture. Also remnants of bodies, dismembered by explosions or crushed under Israeli tanks, were among the recovered items.

According to the released videos, patients were held captive without care and food.

The attack by Israeli soldiers on the Al-Shifa Hospital and civilians, including patients, medical staff, journalists, and refugees sheltering in the hospital, was a blatant violation of various articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention (adopted in 1949) regarding the protection of civilians in time of war, including Articles 18 and 19 of the Convention and the Additional Protocols adopted in 1977.

Second: Shortly after, news came that in an Israeli missile attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus and the destruction of the building, seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Commander of the Syria and Lebanon branch of the IRGC Quds Force, and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, his deputy, senior military advisors and officers of Iran in Syria, and five accompanying officers, as well as several Syrian and Lebanese citizens, were martyred.

This attack was not only a blatant violation of the territory of Syria as the host country of the Iranian Consulate, but also a terrorist attack by Israel against Iranian citizens in a diplomatic location.

Over the past six months, Israel has been trying to expand the scope of the war through its terrorist actions, targeting at least three countries - Syria, Lebanon, and Iran.

Israel's action on April 1st was a violation of the Vienna Convention. According to Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations dated April 24, 1963, "Consular premises shall be inviolable to the extent provided in this article."

Inaction in the face of such actions can lead to increasing effects and consequences.

Third: That day in the afternoon, 7 aid-workers of "World Central Kitchen", who were in Gaza for food distribution, were martyred while returning because of the Israeli air attack. This is while, the Israeli army had been informed of the commutation of this charity's members.

According to the founder of this charity, Israel has targeted them systematically and vehicle by vehicle.

A senior UN official for humanitarian aids in Gaza said, "Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7 last year, more than 200 aid workers have been assassinated in the region." No doubt, the aim of such attacks on humanitarian institutions is to stop their measures, intimidate them not to continue their activities and continuation of the policy of humiliation of the Palestinian people and imposition of hunger on the people of Gaza as a war weapon.

This Israeli move is a manifest example of war crimes of paragraph B of article 8 of Rome Statute and the breach of other cases of legal and customary laws which are enforceable in the international armed conflicts.

Fourth: On the same day, the Israeli Parliament ratified the new rough copy of "Al-Jazeera Law" which had been presented by Benjamin Netanyahu for "Immediate Closure" of Al-Jazeera Network and illegalizing of its activity due to the way it covered Gaza war news. Although this law is dubbed with the name Al-Jazeera, it can include every foreign channel.

This is while, prior to this move, in addition to targeting and killing of two journalists and one cameraman of Al-Jazeera and 147 other journalists and reporters, the families of some other journalists had been martyred during the recent war by Israel. With the new move to close down Al-Jazeera, Israel will prevent the publication of the news and evidence of its crimes in ethnic cleansing and massacre of Palestinians.

Fifth: The Biden administration, during the recent days, has shown a green light for transferring a new arms package worth $2.5 billion composed of bombs and fighters to Israel. This arms package includes more than 1.800 multivalent MK84 bombs weighing 2.000 pounds (950 kg) and 500 MK82 bombs weighing 500 pounds (225 kg).

Besides, according to the released news, the US government is finalizing the sale of the new arms package to Israel and has pressured the Congress for ratification of the bill of sale of 50 F-15 fighters and 30 air-to-air missiles and other ammunitions worth $18 billion.

With regards to what has been said, only one country in the world, after retreating from the debris of a big hospital complex and a fortnight bombing of patients and refugees, in the following morning describe it haughtily as a success; in the afternoon attack the consulate of a country with diplomatic immunity in the neighboring country and martyr several people with Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese nationalities; in the evening attack a humanitarian NGO and target 7 people with Palestinian, Australian, Polish, British and American-Canadian nationalities, and then ratify a law for prevention of the activity of a TV channel while is still concealing its crimes and being armed by its supporters with sophisticated weapons. Honestly, why?

Adopted from a column on daily Ettela’at by former Iranian MP, Jamileh Kadivar.

MG-RM/ME