Hamas calls on international institutions to prevent Israeli killings in Gaza

By Esat Firat

GAZA, Palestine (AA) - Hamas called on international institutions including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN on Wednesday to urgently act to stop the systematic killing of the Palestinian people.

"Footage aired by Al Jazeera documenting the cold-blooded killing of two unarmed young civilians by Zionist occupation forces and their bodies dragged with a bulldozer to cover up the crime is further evidence of Zionist crimes," the Palestinian resistance group said in a statement.

The statement highlighted Israel's conducting of "a brutal, genocidal war against the Palestinian people" in the Gaza Strip, calling for urgent action from all international institutions to stop the systematic killing of their people and to hold accountable the rogue regime and its terrorist war criminal leaders for their crimes against children and vulnerable civilians.

On Wednesday, footage aired on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel showed Israeli soldiers shooting and killing two Palestinians who were attempting to return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip.

The report indicated that Israeli soldiers dragged them with bulldozers and buried them in the sand to cover up the "war crime" they committed.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Palestinian territories since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed around 1,200 people.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have since been killed and some 75,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. ​​​​​​​