The Arab League Council, at the level of permanent representatives, held an emergency session at its Cairo headquarters, chaired by Jordan, to address the worsening humanitarian and military crisis in Gaza.
The meeting was convened in response to the intensifying Israeli military operations and the continued blockade imposed on the Palestinian population in the besieged enclave.
In a strongly worded statement, the Council condemned what it described as Israel’s systematic policies of starvation, collective killing, and deprivation, aimed at turning Gaza into an empty land free of Palestinians. These actions, the Council affirmed, constitute a full-fledged genocide under international law.
The Council called for an urgent and wide-ranging Arab and international political and diplomatic response to exert pressure on Israel to halt its aggression, lift the blockade, and allow unimpeded humanitarian and medical aid into Gaza. The statement emphasized the need to hold Israeli officials accountable for crimes committed against Palestinian civilians, including through legal mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
According to the Council, the continued denial of food, water, medicine, electricity, and clean water to over two million Palestinians in Gaza is a war crime and a crime against humanity. It condemned the reduction of humanitarian aid under political or legal justifications as immoral and illegal under international humanitarian law.
The Council also welcomed the statement issued by 28 European Union countries on July 21, which clearly condemned Israeli practices, called for the protection of civilians, and denounced the ongoing crimes. It described the EU statement as a positive step toward building international pressure for accountability.
The Arab League urged continued efforts at the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to initiate political and legal proceedings against the occupation, including the referral of Israeli crimes to the ICC and obtaining a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding the legality of the blockade and collective punishment imposed on Gaza.
The Council concluded its statement with a warning: the silence of the international community in the face of these atrocities only emboldens the perpetrators and reinforces a culture of impunity. It called for a unified Arab stance to mobilize international opinion, demand an end to the aggression, and relieve the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
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