Red Cross: Israeli Use of Live Fire in Gaza Strip Triggers Unprecedented Crisis

TEHRAN (Defapress)- the regional director for the Middle East at the ICRC, said at a press conference on Monday that the “vast majority” of more than 13,000 hospitalized demonstrators had suffered severe injuries, including multiple gunshot wounds, Middle East News reported.

“This is I think a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in the Gaza Strip,” Mardini stated, adding that he was in talks with the Israeli military in a bid to minimize civilian harm.

As a result of the talks, the Palestinian Red Cross has been able to dispatch aid workers in the vicinity of the fence, separating the Gaza Strip from the Israeli-held territories, to evacuate the wounded to safety.

More than 140 Palestinians were killed and over 14,000 wounded by the Israeli Army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the start of the March of Return rallies in late March, according to the latest statistics by the Ministry of Health.

The Amnesty International has also stressed that the attacks on Palestinian protesters by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip are “willful killings constituting war crimes", while the UN Human Rights Council has decided to urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged violations and abuses which may amount to war crimes in the occupied Gaza Strip.

The violence was condemned by rights groups and most UN Security Council members, with even the US’ closest allies refusing to stand by Washington’s support for Tel Aviv.

Israel has launched several wars on the Palestinian coastal sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014. The military aggression, which ended in late August 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

The Israeli regime denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs with proper wages as well as adequate healthcare and education.

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