Palestinian National Council accuses US of complicity in Gaza genocide

By Mohamed Sheikh Yusuf

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Palestinian National Council (PNC) accused the US on Friday of being complicit in the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"The US … has not implemented what it calls for regarding the two-state solution, nor has it granted Palestine full membership in the United Nations," head of the Council, Rouhi Fattouh, said during the "Parliamentarians for Jerusalem" conference in Istanbul, attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The US vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution on April 18 that demanded Palestine's full membership at the UN.

Fattouh accused the Biden administration of "opening arms depots (to the Israeli army) to kill women and children and to practice starvation and thirst" in Gaza.

He said, in return, "Our people value the positions of President Erdogan and the supportive Turkish people towards the Palestinian cause and its just rights."

''No one can expect Türkiye to remain silent about the genocide the Palestinians have been subjected to in Gaza for the past 203 days,'' he added.

The PNC is the legislative body of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv said killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 34,356 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,368 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January 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