The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) in London is deeply concerned by the latest escalation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the Gaza Strip and adjacent areas.

PRC reiterates that Israel alone is responsible for this escalation in the occupied Palestinian territory due to its continuous incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and violations of the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom of worship.

PRC reaffirms its unswerving stance vis-à-vis the justice of the Palestinian struggle and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the establishment of their independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

PRC stresses the urgent need for the international community to step up pressure on Israel to force it to halt its crimes against the Palestinians, comply with international legitimacies, and respect the historical rights of the Palestinian people.

The latest escalation is the outcome of repeated Israeli crimes and contuious illgal occupation.

Isarel's racist far-right government is pulling the wool over the world’s eyes through its self-defense pretext; Israel must be held accountable for its aggressions on Palestinians’ and Muslims’ holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque, and for its crimes of land grab, illegal settlement expansion, state-sponsored settler terrorism, and mistreatment of 5000 of Palestinian political detainees behind prison bars, 1200 among whom held under administrative detention with neither charge nor trial.

There is no doubt that the latest escalation is, for the most part, a direct and expected result of the over than a decade-long blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza by land, air, and sea and which turned the besieged enclave into an unliveable area. 

Israel's apartheid regime dehumanizing the Palestinians by all possible means and the racist policies perpetrated by the far-right Israeli government cannot go unnoticed, at a time when the international community remains mum  over such Israeli atrocities.

The latest escalation is due to the international community’s silence over  the horrendous crimes committed by an entity that systematically flouts international law, including binding UN Security Council resolutions, with impunities.

PRC calls on the international community to stop all forms of support for Israel’s violations and to break with years of complicit inaction by holding the Israeli authorities to account.

The consequences of this international silence are likely to go cataclysmic not only in occupied Palestine but also in the entire region. It is high time the United Nations and other concerned bodies to hold Israel accountable for the crimes committed against the Palestinians, under the principle of universal jurisdiction and in accordance with international laws.