By María Josefina Arce

On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, it is more urgent than ever to mobilize worldwide for peace, against the Israeli occupation and for the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and to an independent and sovereign state.
   
For decades these people have been subjected to arbitrary arrests, assassinations, torture and forced evictions from their land.
    
According to human rights organizations, some 7,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails, many of them without trial.
   
A report last June by Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, states that since 1967 more than 800,000 Palestinians, including children, have been detained according to authoritarian rules dictated and imposed by the Zionist army.
  
This date has a special significance today. Since last October, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified and the Gaza Strip has been constantly bombarded by Tel Aviv. The civilian population there has seen their already deplorable living conditions worsen.
    
Eighty percent of the population was already dependent on humanitarian aid, 68% were food insecure and 69% of the youth were unemployed.
  
In the current context, this situation has been compounded by the high number of dead and wounded. Thousands of Palestinians, including a high number of children and women, have lost their lives and thousands more have been injured.
  
Tel Aviv has constantly shelled civilian and UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Palestine (UNRWA) buildings and even ambulances.
    
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that people in every corner of Gaza have extreme health needs, following an assessment made at the start of a four-day truce that began on the 24th and was extended until Wednesday.
    
The criminal Zionist attacks have also caused more than 1.5 million Gaza residents to be displaced from their homes.
   
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, which has been celebrated since 1977, is another opportunity to make visible the dramatic situation of the Palestinian people and to defend more strongly their right to sovereignty over their lives and lands.