Hamas commends UN report on Israeli genocide in Gaza

By Mustafa Haboush

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, praised a UN report Tuesday about Israel's committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The group urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Tel Aviv.

''The report by UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, regarding Israel's committing of genocide crimes in Gaza constitutes further acknowledgment from a senior UN official,” the group said in a statement.

It urged the ICC to "take action to hold the occupation leaders accountable for their acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."

The report was published Tuesday during the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Albanese concluded that there were grounds to believe that Israel has committed "genocide" in Gaza, citing statements from Israeli civilian and military officials seeking to legitimize "genocide against the Palestinian people."

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

More than 32,400 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 74,800 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now in day 172, 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 is accused of genocide at the ICJ, 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.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul