Berlin - Saba:
Human rights organizations and experts in Germany confirmed Tuesday evening that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
This came during a press conference in Berlin on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the role of the European Union and Germany in this regard. The conference was held by Riad Othman, Middle East Affairs Officer at Medico International, and Dr. Julia Dochero, Secretary General of Amnesty International Germany, along with Professor Geir Deusings, Professor at the University of Regensburg, and Professor Christine Benzel, Professor at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Othman said that Israel, its government, and its army should be judged by their actions, not their press releases. He added that the safe routes promised for delivering aid remain unclear, and that a World Food Programme convoy was attacked.
He emphasized that the number of trucks allowed through so far is ridiculously small, adding that it is impossible to meet daily needs with just 600 trucks, as basic infrastructure, health services, and agriculture in Gaza have been systematically destroyed.
He pointed out that German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul described the situation in Gaza as unacceptable, adding: "However, this situation has clearly not been accepted by previous and current German governments for more than 20 months. Rather, they have actively supported their Israeli allies in perpetuating and seriously exacerbating this situation."He explained that Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, with which Medico International has cooperated for many years, concluded in a report published yesterday that the Israeli government committed the crime of genocide in Gaza.
For her part, Julia Dokhru, Secretary General of Amnesty International Germany, said that the deliberate starvation of civilians constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adding: "There is sufficient evidence that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war."
Dokhru emphasized that starvation may constitute a crime against humanity if it occurs as part of a widespread or systematic attack on civilians.
She added: "When starvation is deliberately used as a weapon of war to create conditions of life that may lead to the total or partial physical destruction of a group, this constitutes the crime of genocide."
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