14 November 2023; MEMO: The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the Israeli army’s bombing of the headquarters of the Qatar Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza.
In a statement issued yesterday, the ministry described the attack as “a clear violation of international law and an extension of Israel’s approach to targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, which also included hospitals, schools, population centres and shelters for displaced persons.”
The ministry said the committee “has worked through its projects to alleviate the suffering of the population in the besieged Gaza Strip due to the long blockade and ongoing aggression.”
It called on the international community to immediately move and hold Israel accountable for its repeated crimes against civilians and civilian properties and to force it to comply with international laws.
It also called on Israel to stop providing “flimsy” justifications for targeting civilian properties, health facilities and civilians, and the use of misleading information, which “cannot be accepted under any consideration as a pretext for targeting the headquarters of the committee, which has remained concerned with rebuilding what the occupation destroyed in its repeated wars on Gaza Strip.”
The committee, which started its operations in 2012, manages and implements the State of Qatar’s grants for the reconstruction of Gaza, and has implemented dozens of projects in the fields of housing, buildings, roads, infrastructure, health, agriculture and other sectors that serve the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past few days, Israel has targeted several headquarters of international organisations in Gaza, most notably the headquarters of the United Nations Development Centre, and schools and hospitals run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA).
