The Israeli Attack Against The Gaza Freedom.

The Fatah Foreign Relations Commission published the following statement:

At a time when the memory of recent Israeli war crimes against Gaza remainsfresh in our memory, Israeli occupation warships attacked today the “Freedom Fleet", a flotilla of aid boats manned by dozens of international peace activists, parliamentarians, and journalists. Israeli occupation forces assaulted the fleet while the ships were still in international waters, attempting to reach the Gaza shores to deliver desperately needed humanitarian supplies to the population. This aggression has resulted in the killing and injury of dozens of activists aboard these boats. The Fateh Foreign Relations Commission condemns this heinous crime in the strongest possible way.

The Freedom Fleet was more than 90 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza, well in international waters, when it came under attack from Israeli warships. These illegal Israeli actions are an explicit act of piracy under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. They are also a continuation to persistent Israeli belligerence and impunity and expose the fallacy of Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

It has been nearly four years since Israel, the occupying Power, began its illegal, immoral and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip; a blockade that has brought Gaza’s economy to a grinding halt and plummeted the socio-economic living standards of 1.7 million Palestinian civilians. The suffering of the civilian population was further deepened by the brutal, merciless military aggression waged on Gaza by the Israeli occupation.

The international community must act; it cannot remain on the sidelines as Israel continues to flagrantly and blatantly breach international law while innocent lives are lost and the principles of international law are violated. The unfortunate international inaction and silence has emboldened the occupying Power to escalate its impunity over time. It is therefore imperative that Israel be compelled, first and foremost, to immediately and completely lift its siege on the Gaza Strip to allow for the movement of persons and goods in order to end the isolation and humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian civilian population. Furthermore the safe release of the courageous civilian solidarity activists, who were abducted at sea, must be secured. Under international conventions in force, States are obliged to extend their full cooperation to suppress piracy on the high seas or anywhere outside the jurisdiction of any State. As such, we call on all law-abiding states to assume their responsibility in this regard and ensure that the principle of piracy and violence, which Israel has adopted as policy, is combated and confronted.

It is high time that the international community undertake its collective duty to exert the necessary, serious efforts to redress the illegal situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory and bring an end to Israel’s illegal policies and practices. There is no legal, political, moral or human justification for the inhumane policies that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip.

Peace can never be realized as long as Israel continues to defy the law and remains an unwilling partner in the peace process. The international community therefore must cease its appeasement of such behavior by Israel and must shoulder its responsibilities to bring about a change of course that will undoubtedly contribute to the realization of the two -State solution for peace.