An Israeli settlement in West Bank. Photo source: OHCHR
Washington/Geneva: The G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America as well as the High Representative of the European Union today condemned Israel’s move to legalise five outposts in the West Bank. The announcement to this effect was made last month by Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right ultra-nationalist politician.
The G7 Foreign Ministers joined the United Nations and the European Union in condemning Smotrich’s announcement and also rejected the decision by the Government of Israel to declare over 1,270 hectares of land in the West Bank as ‘state lands’ – the largest such declaration of state land since the Oslo Accords – and the decision to expand existing settlements in the occupied West Bank by 5,295 new housing units and to establish three new settlements.
“The Government of Israel’s settlement program is inconsistent with international law and counterproductive to the cause of peace,” the G7 Foreign Ministers said in a joint statement today. They “reaffirmed” their commitment to a lasting and sustainable peace in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, based on a two-state solution.
“We have therefore consistently expressed our opposition to the expansion of settlements and, as in previous cases, we urge the Government of Israel to reverse this decision,” the G7 stated.
According to the G7 countries’ Foreign Ministers, maintaining economic stability in the West Bank was critical for regional security. In this context, they took note of the latest transfers of parts of clearance revenues to the Palestinian Authority but urged Israel to release all withheld clearance revenues per the Paris Protocols, remove or relax measures that exacerbate the economic situation in the West Bank, and to take the necessary measures to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place with proper controls.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva that more evacuation orders issued by Israel were further threatening the health of people. He said the Al Ahli and Patient Friendly hospitals in northern Gaza were the latest that were unable to function because of fighting nearby. Patients from Al Ahli had been evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital, which was now operating at three times its capacity.
Over 10,000 patients still needed medical evacuation for treatment that could not be provided in Gaza. “Multiple evacuation corridors are needed urgently, to the West Bank, Egypt and Jordan,” Dr Ghebreyesus said. He further said that almost the entire population of Gaza now faces high levels of acute food insecurity. “Almost one in four are facing starvation, and another one in three face acute malnutrition. At the same time, very few supplies are getting into Gaza,” he said.
He disclosed that only five WHO trucks were allowed into Gaza last week. More than 34 trucks were still waiting at the Al Arish crossing, and 850 pallets of supplies were awaiting collection. A further 40 trucks are waiting at Ismailiya in Egypt.
WHO called for the restrictions on supplies entering Gaza to be lifted immediately. “The people of Gaza who have nothing to do with this conflict must not be the ones who pay the price for it,” the WHO D-G said.
– global bihari bureau
