Arab League: Israel exploited coronavirus to escalate aggression on Palestinians

Israeli occupation authorities are exploiting the world’s preoccupation with confronting the novel coronavirus to escalate its ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people, the Arab League (AL) warned yesterday.

The AL said in a statement that the Israeli violations included “killing, arresting and displacing civilians, annexing new settlements, and Judaising and attacking Palestinian holy sites.”

“The [Israeli] occupation is exploiting the world’s preoccupation with the coronavirus pandemic to expand their settlements and impose new realities on the ground, especially in East Jerusalem and its surrounding areas,” the league said.

The statement condemned what it described as “Israel’s racist and terrorist practices against the Palestinian people, and its systematic violation against human rights,” calling on Israel to “immediately comply with the United Nations Security Council’s decisions, halt its aggression practices, and the release all the Palestinian prisoners.”

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The league called on the international community “to act immediately to stop the ongoing daily crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.”

“Despite the global concern about confronting the coronavirus, Israel did not care about the threat of virus spread among the Palestinian people, leaving more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held together in the its prisons,” the Palestinian official said.