JENIN DISASTER ‘A THREAT TO MUSLIM, ARAB IDENTITY’

KUWAIT CITY, July 5, (Agencies): The Ministry of Social Affairs has agreed to grant licenses to charities in Kuwait, to send urgent relief and essential needs for the residents of the Jenin camp in Palestine, which was subjected to a military campaign by the Israeli occupation forces that left many dead and wounded, reports Al-Qabas daily. Some charities have announced the launch of urgent campaigns to support the people of the camp, who are suffering from a stifling humanitarian crisis, where thousands of refugees live in difficult and inhumane conditions.

The Balad Al-Khair Association indicated that its campaign aims to provide the needs for the camp residents, in light of the lack of clean water and safe sanitation facilities, the lack of food and medicine, and the lack of basic and educational services. The camp is now facing a brutal military campaign by the occupation forces, and the charity campaigns are seeking to provide the necessary support to meet the needs of the camp residents to meet the daily needs of the people living there. Al-Safa Charitable Association also announced an urgent aid to Palestine to provide urgent medical assistance, aid, food parcels, and medicinal materials, and to equip field hospitals to treat the injured and those interested can donate to the campaign. Meanhwhile, Kuwait on Tuesday reaffirmed its rejection to “blatant” escalation and repeated attacks of the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian people in Jenin city.

Violations
Speaking during an emergency meeting of the Arab League, Kuwait’s permanent representative to the bloc Ambassador Ghanim Al-Ghanim said “those attacks form a new series of repeated violations of international humanitarian law and charters. “We are observing now a disaster which poses a threat to the Muslim and Arab identity, and raises doubt in the ability of international community to hold those violate internationally recognized laws accountable,” Al-Ghanim said. Today’s meeting is being held in light of “disastrous” conditions facing the brotherly Palestinian people and the Arab world in the wake of the Israeli aggression on Jenin city in the Occupied West Bank that killed and wounded some people, he noted.

Al-Ghanim renewed Kuwait’s firm stance of calling for rapid intervention from international community and the UN Security Council to shoulder their legal, political and humanitarian responsibilities, halt those attacks and hold the perpetrators accountable. The ambassador also affirmed Kuwait’s position on providing international protection to the brotherly Palestinian people, in line with international law and charters. Palestinian delegate to the Arab League, Ambassador Mohannad Al-Aklouk, denounced, Tuesday, the “comprehensive Israeli war” on Jenin in the West Bank. Al-Aklouk, during the Arab League extraordinary session at the level of permanent delegates, indicated that during the past two decades, Israeli occupation army killed about 2,250 Palestinian children, prevented thousands of children from accessing their schools freely and safely, targeted hundreds of schools and educational centers, and arrested thousands of children. He called on the UN Secretary General to put Israel on the international list of shame for child killers, as well as to follow up the implementation of UN resolutions regarding the protection of the Palestinian people and to develop practical mechanisms to implement this protection.

Embarrassment
He stressed that Israel’s crimes constitute a great embarrassment to the international community. In the latest development, Israel withdrew troops from a West Bank militant stronghold Wednesday, but warned that its most intense military operation in the occupied territory in nearly two decades could be repeated. Thirteen Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the twoday raid. Residents of the Jenin refugee camp emerged from their homes to find alleys lined by piles of rubble and flattened or scorched cars. Shopkeepers and bulldozers started clearing the debris.

Thousands who had fl ed the fighting began returning. Kefah Dabayyah, a 33-year-old Jenin refugee camp resident, said that he and his family had returned Wednesday to find widespread destruction. “Roads were destroyed and many houses were affected, glass from windows was everywhere,” he said. His home was not hit, but there was no water, electricity or internet service. The army claimed to have infl icted heavy damage on militant groups in the operation, which included a series of airstrikes and hundreds of ground troops. But it remained unclear whether there would be any lasting effect after more than a year of heavy fighting in the West Bank. Ahead of the withdrawal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to carry out similar operations if needed. “At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off,” he said during a visit to a military post on the outskirts of Jenin.

“We will eradicate terrorism wherever we see it and we will strike at it.” The Jenin raid was one of the most intense Israeli military operations in the West Bank since an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel’s Some of the scenes from Jenin, including massive army bulldozers tearing through camp alleys, were eerily similar to those from a major Israeli incursion in 2002, which lasted for eight days and became known as the battle of Jenin. Both operations, two decades apart, were meant to crush militant groups in the camp and deter and prevent attacks on Israelis emanating from the camp. In each case, the army claimed success.

However, the continued cycle of army raids and Palestinian attacks raised new questions about Israel’s tactics. This week’s raid had wide support across Israel’s political spectrum, but some critics in the country argued the impact is short-lived, with slain gunmen quickly replaced by others. “As usual, these things are best taken in proportion. To the security establishment, this is a successful operation thus far, but it holds no real chance of effecting a fundamental change in the state of affairs in the West Bank,” wrote Amos Harel, military affairs commentator for the Haaretz daily. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose autonomy government administers parts of the West Bank, has rejected violence against Israelis, but has effectively lost control over several strongholds of gunmen