​Iran says Israeli officials must be brought to justice for heinous crimes against Palestinians

United Nations, May 26 (RHC)-- Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi says Israeli officials must be brought to justice for perpetrating “heinous” crimes against the Palestinian people in flagrant violation of international law.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council session on “protection of civilians in armed conflict” on Tuesday, the Iranian diplomat said Israeli officials have lately demolished 847 Palestinian-owned structures, including homes, sanitation assets and 156 buildings donated as humanitarian aid, and displaced at least 996 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

He added that Palestinians are experiencing wide-scale forced displacement from their homes and territories, and that around 90,000 Palestinians are estimated to be at the risk of evictions in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

“The worst is that when the Palestinians protested against such unlawful forced eviction, including in Sheikh Jarrah [neighborhood], where they have lived generations after generations, and complained for attacks on Muslim worshipers in al-Aqsa Mosque [compound] during the holy month of Ramadan, Israeli security and military forces committed the most brutal crimes against Palestinians,” Takht-Ravanchi stated.

He pointed to the recent Israeli military onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, stating that besides killing hundreds of people, including 66 children and 39 women, Israeli forces also destroyed 30 health facilities, nearly 50 schools and educational centers, some 50 percent of the water network as well as 33 media offices and damaged 43 mosques during the 12-day brutal and all-out aggression.

“Such crimes which materially breach fundamental norms and principles of international law, entail international responsibility of the Israeli regime, whose officials must therefore be brought to justice for committing such heinous crimes,” Takht-Ravanchi said.

At least 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed in the Israeli bombardment of the densely populated coastal enclave. Israel’s bombardment also brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished territory.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian territory said in a report that more than 90,000 people in Gaza had been displaced due to Israeli bombardment.

Takht-Ravanchi then criticized the UN Security Council’s failure to discharge its Charter-based mandate and issue even a mild press statement calling for an end to the Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza.

The Iranian UN ambassador also slammed the “shameful” shielding of the Israeli regime by the United States, stressing that the Security Council’s May 22 statement, which came after the Israeli regime and Palestinian resistance groups had agreed to a ceasefire, was not of much actual value.