European body accused on Tuesday Israel of engaging in “apparently systematic unlawful killings” of Palestinian civilians in over the past several years.
The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) voted in favour of a resolution, based on an internal report on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which charges Israel with “excessive and intentional force without justification against Palestinian civilians.”
According to the report, the meant civilians are those located in the buffer zone, farmers, journalists, medical crews and peaceful protesters. It stated that this use of force “runs blatantly counter to human rights principles and the international law-enforcement standards.”
It reads: “Cases of the deliberate fatal shooting of individuals who posed no imminent danger to life amounts to an appalling pattern of apparently systematic unlawful killings.”
Swedish politician from the Swedish Social Democratic Party Eva-Lena Jansson composed the report, which was presented on January 4 to the assembly, made up of 324 parliamentarians from 47 countries.
The report cites a Palestinian NGO which is said to have “documented the killing of 136 Palestinians in Gaza by Israeli live fire in the buffer zone, including 20 children,” since 2010.
On Tuesday, the Assembly passed the resolution with a vote of 46 in favour, 12 against and two abstentions in the assembly during a session in Strasbourg, France.
According to the report, Israel is accused of “a massive and exceptional escalation in…attacks and harassment of Palestinian fishermen, including use of live fire.”
It noted that Gazan fishermen “are now reduced to severe poverty and unemployment as a direct result of Israel’s policies and practices against them.”
The report also noted that since the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza, in which a “huge number of people [were] killed” and in which “the destruction of civil infrastructure…was enormous,” the situation in Gaza became so dire that “many people preferred to flee Gaza and join the masses of refugees going to Europe.”
“It is estimated that over 12,620 houses were totally destroyed [in Gaza] and 6,455 severely damaged. 17,650 families or about 100,000 persons were displaced,” the report said.
The resolution calls for an end to the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt on the Gaza Strip, warns of a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave if regular access to humanitarian goods, water and electricity is not granted.
It also called on Israel to “refrain from the use of force without justification against Palestinian civilians in the buffer and fishing zones.”
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