Hamas slams 70 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine as ‘full-fledged war crime’

“All the human suffering experienced by our people, especially the workers who are exposed to different forms of targeting and restrictions on a daily basis and denied their most basic rights, has been caused by the occupation,” Hamas said in a Sunday press release on the occasion of the International Workers’ Day, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

The movement also denounced the attempts to target the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and change or end its real role as the witness to crimes committed by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian refugees in all areas of their presence should be allowed to exercise their rights, mainly their right to work, it added.

Hamas further urged the competent UN and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to assume their responsibilities in this regard, emphasizing that they should work on exposing Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian workers, pressuring the regime to lift its siege on the Gaza Strip, which affects workers’ livelihoods, and ensuring that they are given their legitimate rights to work and live with freedom and dignity on their own land.

The statement came after the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel finds it easy to impose “collective punishment” against Palestinians since the regime is hardly ever held to account. 

In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the Israeli regime practices the worst forms of discrimination and colonial racism against the defenseless Palestinian people on a daily basis and before the eyes of the international community, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.

Acts of sabotage and settler violence against the Palestinians and their property are commonplace throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank. However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute the settlers and the majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate the crimes properly.

The latest development comes as the Israeli regime has escalated its deadly attacks against Palestinians in the run-up to Ramadan and sustained the violence throughout the holy fasting month, stirring up anti-Tel Aviv sentiments throughout the occupied territories.

The Israeli regime has also ramped up its violent attacks on Palestinian worshipers in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of occupied al-Quds in recent weeks.