The Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs(ECFA) highly appreciates the announcement by the Arab Republic of Egypt, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on May 12, of its intention to intervene officially to support the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice, to consider Israel’s violations of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip. The Council affirms its full support for this decisive move by the Egyptian state, at this critical time when the Palestinian cause is facing difficult challenges, amid the continued denial and aggravated Israeli aggressions against Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, including direct targeting of them, the destruction of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure and pushing them to displacement and forced displacement outside their land, in flagrant violation of all humanitarian and international norms and laws, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons under. Unparalleled Israeli provocations, especially after Tel Aviv adopted the option of continuing its aggression and invading Rafah, in search of an imaginary victory, despite Hamas’ agreement to the recent proposals for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The Council reiterates that these systematic attacks have led to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in a strip teeming with thousands of unarmed civilians, which in turn has created unviable conditions in the Gaza Strip and the martyrdom of more than 35,000 civilians, most of them women and children. This has undoubtedly reinforced Israel’s flagrant violations of its obligations in the Gaza Strip, as the occupying power, and proved its crude failure to take the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice on 26 January and 16 February, which demand that humanitarian and relief assistance be guaranteed in an adequate manner that meets the needs of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and that the occupying forces do not commit any violations against the Palestinian people as a protected people in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the provisions of international law and law. International humanitarian.
In the above context, the Council stresses that the Egyptian move comes within the framework of Egypt’s leading role in supporting the Palestinian cause, based on its historical responsibility towards it, and from its supreme interests and national security, a role that the Egyptian state has deservedly played over more than 75 years of Israeli occupation, supported by Western powers, led by the United States of America, which has provided permanent political and military cover for Israel to continue its crimes in the occupied territories, and to flout the provisions and principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
The Council renews its call on the international community to take immediate action to establish a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and military operations in the Palestinian city of Rafah, and to provide the necessary protection for Palestinian civilians. It also calls for strengthening international efforts to support the Palestinian cause, in light of the recent support of the United Nations General Assembly, by a large majority, for Palestine to obtain full membership in the United Nations, and the effective recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the lines of the fourth of June 1967.
