RIYADH: Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani urged the international community on Sunday to “stop using double standards” and punish Israel for what he described as its “crimes.”
He was speaking at a preparatory meeting on the eve of an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic leaders organized by Qatar after Israel carried out an unprecedented air strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.
“The time has come for the international community to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed, and Israel needs to know that the ongoing war of extermination that our brotherly Palestinian people is being subjected to, and whose aim is to expel them from their land, will not work,” the prime minister said.
Sheikh Mohammed said Doha remained committed to working with Egypt and the United States to reach a ceasefire in the war that has devastated the Gaza Strip. However, he said that the Israeli strike that killed six people — five members of Hamas and a local Qatari security force member — represented “an attack on the principle of mediation itself.”
“This attack can only be described as state terrorism, an approach pursued by the current extremist Israeli government, which flouts international law,” the minister said. “The reckless and treacherous Israeli aggression was committed while the state of Qatar was hosting official and public negotiations, with the knowledge of the Israeli side itself, and with the aim of achieving a ceasefire in Gaza.”
The preparatory meeting of foreign ministers for the emergency joint Arab-Islamic summit commenced on Sunday in Doha under Sheikh Mohammed’s leadership.
The summit is to discuss a draft statement regarding the Israeli attack on Qatar on Sept. 9, which targeted the residences of several Hamas officials in Doha, according to the Qatar News Agency.
The airstrikes were widely condemned across the Arab and Islamic world as a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and international law.
Foreign ministers of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member states are attending the summit on Sunday, including Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denounced the Israeli attack as an “aggressive act” and reiterated the Kingdom’s solidarity with Doha, stressing the need for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its actions, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
- Residents of Gaza say they have nowhere else to go, noting that Israel has repeatedly struck the area in the south where it has urged people to move
- The scenes of mass flight from Gaza City came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel in a show of support
GAZA CITY: Palestinian families streamed out of Gaza City on Sunday, some crammed into pick-up trucks, others on foot, as Israeli forces pressed their assault on the territory’s main urban center.
Parents carried their children while the elderly hobbled along, an AFP journalist reported.
A man in a wheelchair and another on crutches were among the long line of people heading south under Israeli military orders.
The military has issued multiple evacuation warnings for Gaza City, but many residents have told AFP they have nowhere else to go, noting that Israel has repeatedly struck the area in the south where it has urged people to move.
The scenes of mass flight from Gaza City came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel in a show of support, despite an Israeli strike in Qatar this week.
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued on Sunday a warning to those in Gaza’s port area and Al-Rimal neighborhood to evacuate immediately to a “humanitarian zone” in the south, where Gazans say there is no more space to pitch tents.
He had on Saturday said more than 250,000 Gaza City residents had already fled, while Gaza’s civil defense agency said the figure was closer to 68,000.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.
Panic and extreme fear
Prior to the latest assault, the United Nations had estimated that around a million people lived in and around the city, where it officially declared famine last month.
AFP footage showed exhausted families moving along the coastal road near Nuseirat south of Gaza City, with their belongings stacked high in vehicles.
In the city itself, “the bombardment hasn’t stopped since dawn,” said Umm Alaa Shaaban, 45, a resident of Tal Al-Hawa district in Gaza City’s southwest.
“We haven’t slept all night... The sounds of shelling and explosions have not stopped until now,” she told AFP.
According to Shaaban, the Israeli air force “bombed many houses... we were terribly afraid — my children screamed in terror.
“We don’t know where to go. The bombardment is everywhere.”
Mohammed Ghazal, 32, who fled from Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood, also said the strikes were relentless.
“We are living in a state of panic and extreme fear. The shelling hasn’t stopped since dawn, the explosions are intense and the shooting continuous,” he told AFP.
“Israeli forces are using terrifying methods and escalating the bombardment to frighten us and force us to flee south.”
In recent days, the Israeli military has targeted several high-rise buildings in Gaza City, saying they were being used by Hamas militants.
On Sunday, it said it had struck another high-rise where Hamas had set up “observation posts to monitor the location of... troops in the area.”
AFP also saw an Israeli leaflet dropped on residents, telling them they were in a “dangerous combat zone” — a message the military has repeated for weeks.
Across the the Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes killed 23 people since dawn Sunday, according to the Gaza civil defense agency.
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