Egypt: Killings are war crimes; US, Europe, criticize Israel
Palestine-Israel, Military, 7/24/2002

The UN secretary general Kofi Annan has expressed regret and condemnation of the Israeli massacre committed in Gaza on Monday evening and claimed the lives of 15 Palestinians. Annan said he feels concerned and holds Israel responsible for killing innocent people. Annan stressed that Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to take all measures to avoid the loss of innocent life, and that it "clearly failed to do so in using a missile against an apartment building."

Annan's spokesman said that Annan has called on the Israeli government to halt its military works in the Palestinian territories and to behave according to the international law and humanitarian charters.

The US President George Bush complained officially to the Israeli government about the intentional killing of innocent civilians, and described it as an act which will not contribute to establishing peace in the region, said the White House spokesman yesterday. For his part, Denmark's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Per Stig Moller, whose country assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union condemned the Israeli raids and described it as unaccepted.

In the name of Denmark and the European Union he presented condolences to the families of the Palestinian victims.

In Brussels, the European Commission stressed that this raid cannot be justified.

The higher commissioner of the foreign policy and security in the European Union Javier Solana strongly denounced the Israeli planes bombardment of the residential areas. He stressed rejection of these acts.

Other international sides in France; the UNHCR chief, Sweden's foreign minister, Ms Anna Lindh, and China expressed similar condemnation for the Israeli raids, noting that their countries received with shok the news of the new Israeli killings.

Egypt' Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said yesterday that shelling civilians and killing women, men and children is a new testament to the aggressive Israeli policies and malicious goals. "It is a war crime in full the sense of the word, as it clearly targets innocent civilians," he told the press. Shelling a residential buildings definitely means that the victims will be civilians," he said.

Strangely enough, it comes at a time reports signalled that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas were ready to declare an agreement on halting all attacks on Israelis that might harm civilians, he added. It shows that among the targets of the Israeli operation is to blow up this agreement that would strip Israel of the pretexts of its continued occupation of Palestinian lands, Maher said.

Previous Stories:
  Continued acts of violence in the Palestinian territories   (7/23/2002)
  Explosion near Tel Aviv, Israel to try Greek Orthodox religious leader   (7/22/2002)
  Annan disturbed at Israel destroying Palestinian homes   (7/22/2002)
  UN forum on middle east peace process concludes in copenhagen   (7/20/2002)
  Israeli authorities arrest families of resistance men for expulsion   (7/20/2002)

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