16 November 2023; MEMO: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the war waged by the Israeli occupation army on the besieged Gaza Strip since 7 October targets “the Palestinian existence” and he stressed that Palestinian blood will be “a curse on the [Israeli] occupation and those standing behind it.”
Abbas made his comments in a speech on the 35th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by the late President Yasser Arafat on 15 November, 1988, before the Palestinian National Council held in Algeria.
“The unjust aggressive war to which we are exposed is a war against the Palestinian existence and the Palestinian national identity; the identity of the land and the identity of man. It is an episode in the series of continuous [Israeli] aggression,” said Abbas. “It is also a disgrace to those who support this aggression and provide it with political and military cover.”
The Gaza Strip is an integral part of the territory of the State of Palestine, insisted the veteran Palestinian leader as he pointed out that the first priority is to stop the “barbaric aggression” and “prevent further bloodshed.”
Meanwhile, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi denounced yesterday the “unacceptable silence” of the UN Security Council towards the Israeli occupation army’s “brutality” in storming Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
“The misery in Al-Shifa Hospital shows the barbarism allowed by the UN Security Council’s silence,” Al-Safadi wrote on X. “How could the Council remain silent about forcing children out of incubators? We condemn the silence over this brutality, as it provides cover for war crimes. It is unacceptable and unjustified, and the Council must act.”
At dawn on Wednesday, the Israeli occupation army stormed the hospital complex in a military operation that eyewitnesses described as a “nightmare”, even while it was full of sick, wounded and displaced Palestinians, as well as medical staff. Dozens of bodies lie unburied in the hospital grounds as Israeli snipers target anyone trying to leave the compound.
According to the government media office in Gaza, nearly 1,500 medical staff and about 700 patients, 39 premature babies and 7,000 displaced people are still inside Al-Shifa Hospital.
