Int'l Campaign to Provide Protection for Defenseless Palestinians
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Tuesday the launch of a broad international campaign to protect the defenseless Palestinian people.
Abbas made the remarks during a joint meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee and his Fatah movement's central committee that he chaired, the official Palestinian news agency reported.
"We will launch the campaign to put everyone before their legal and historical responsibilities to provide international protection for the defenseless Palestinian people in the West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds, and Gaza," Abbas said at the meeting.
He added that the world's continued silence and turning its back on Israel's crimes can never be accepted.
Abbas said that the campaign comes "to confront the racist practices of Israel, and in light of the formation of an extreme right-wing government," adding that the time has come for the Palestinian people "to enjoy justice, fairness, and protection."
Abbas's statements come amid the ongoing tension in the West Bank.
According to official Palestinian statistics, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since January.
Abbas said the death of a sick prisoner, 50-year-old Nasser Abu Hamid, in an Israeli hospital Tuesday morning is "an assassination and a full-fledged war crime," as Israel "prevented his struggling mother and all his family members from visiting him throughout the years of his illness."
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club Association, a non-government Palestinian organization, said that Abu Hamid, from a Palestinian refugee camp near Ramallah, died in an Israeli hospital after years of suffering from cancer.