OPT/Israel: PEN International calls for an immediate halt of hostilities, protection of civilians, and a just resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
Photo: Humberto Patrick (CC BY-SA 4.0)
10 October: PEN International is horrified by the appalling toll of civilian death in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) due to the outbreak of violence between Hamas and Israel. We call for an immediate end of all hostilities, the protection of civilians, and a just resolution to the conflict through negotiations between the State of Palestine and the State of Israel, in accordance with international law.
The escalation in violence commenced on October 7 when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel. Israel retaliated with overwhelming bombardment of entire residential areas and initiating a total siege of the Gaza Strip.
Responding to the escalating hostilities, Burhan Sonmez, PEN International President said:
“The violence of Hamas and the Israeli government is unacceptable. Years of occupation and political deadlock have led to this violence, with civilians on both sides suffering the most. I offer my condolences to all those affected by this bloodshed. If unchallenged, the alarming rise in violence and hatred will devastate the entire region and affect the whole world. Peace must prevail by ensuring an immediate ceasefire and a just resolution which addresses the root causes of the conflict. The United Nations must establish a concrete initiative and bring a final end to the occupation, in line with international law.”
PEN International strongly condemns Israel’s total siege of Gaza, including the denial of access to electricity, food, water, fuel and vital medical supplies, as well as the killing of civilians, indiscriminate shelling, disproportionate retaliatory attacks, deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, and collative punishment of the civilian population of Gaza. We also condemn the killing and abductions of civilians by Hamas. Such acts from both sides are prohibited by international law and may amount to war crimes of unprecedented dimensions.
PEN International stresses that all parties to the conflict should strictly adhere to international humanitarian law and protect civilian lives at all times, as per the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols. We also warn that if the UN Security Council does not take urgent actions to enforce an immediate ceasefire, the conflict may risk spreading throughout the region.
We call for an immediate end of all hostilities, the protection of civilian lives, and a just resolution to the conflict. This should entail an immediate end to the illegal Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories, in accordance with international law, and the dismantling of the apartheid system Palestinians have been subjected to for decades.
Background information
On 7 October, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, which resulted in the killing of over 1200 Israelis, including civilians. The attack also left more than 2600 injured, according to the latest figures. Israeli forces launched a retaliatory attack on Gaza, killing at least 508 and wounding 2800, including 91 children and 61 women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The ministry also reported that 15 Palestinians, including two minors, were killed in West Bank and about 80 wounded. The current death toll reports 23,073 Palestinians in Gaza and over 1200 people in Israel.
The recent escalation comes in a context of increasing violence against Palestinians amid alarming settlement expansion in recent years. UN experts, Israeli, and International human rights organisations warned against the impact of the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the apartheid system and the ongoing violations of Palestinian human rights that stem from it. Over two million Palestinians live in Gaza, regularly described as an ‘open-air prison’, without adequate access to power, water or health, with a collapsing economy and with no ability to freely travel to the rest of Palestine or the outside world.
The rise of the extreme far right in Israel, which saw a far-right coalition coming to power in November 2022, raises serious human rights concerns. The new government brought many highly controversial far-right extremists to the forefront, including Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Known for his extreme anti-Arab views and previously convicted of hate speech, inciting racism and supporting a terror group, Ben-Gvir could oversee some police activity in the occupied West Bank.
In September 2021, PEN International’s Assembly of Delegates, meeting at its 87th Annual Congress, adopted a resolution on the critical situation in Israel and the OPT calling, among others, on all parties to support and participate in the International Criminal Court investigation into any potential war crimes, and the independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate abuses of international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, as proposed by the UN Human Rights Council. For more information, click here.
Updated 15/01.23.
Note to editors:
For more information, please contact Sabrina Tucci, PEN International Communications and Campaigns Manager, Sabrina.Tucci@pen-international.org