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The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has condemned the escalating destruction of humanity in the Middle East between the State of Israel and Palestine militant Hamas.
While the rights group condemned the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, it however slammed the Israeli authorities for the high level of destruction of Gaza.
The organisation called on the leaders of Israel including their war planners and policy makers to refrain from turning Gaza city into rubble or tents.
In a statement issued on Friday, signed by the principal officers - Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chinwe Umeche, Chidinma Udegbunam and Ndidiamaka Bernard, Intersociety declared its support for the right of the state and people of Israel to defend themselves against any internal and external aggression but maintained that the right to self-defence does not permit the magnitude of destruction of Gaza by Israeli military.
"The Oct 7, 2023 coordinated terrorist attacks by Hamas and other allied terror groups and their sovereign backers are totally and strongly condemned," it said.
It likened the attacks that claimed the lives of 1,400 Israelis including 286 soldiers and other nationals including 31 Americans and injured thousands of defenceless Israelis and others to replication of the "cannibalistic and barbaric era of the ‘Saladin (Salah ad-Din ibn Ayyub: 1174D-March 4, 1193AD) of Egypt’ during which POWs and ‘enemy children’, captured from the Third Crusade were dismembered and fried like bean-cakes."
"The Hamas jihadist attacks also led to abduction of between 199 and 250 Israelis who are being held hostage. Saddening and shocking was the large scale magnitude perpetration of property destructions on the side of the State and innocent citizens of Israel," it said.
Intersociety, however, described as totally condemnable and unacceptable the rising civilian casualties involving innocent Palestinians and property destruction in the City of Gaza as a result of Israeli airstrikes.
Though it noted that Israel has the right to self-defence, it added that there is no justification for the atrocities committed by the Israeli military in Gaza City. It described the Israeli attacks on Gaza City as nothing short of ‘reprisal radicalism and crudity’ perpetrated outside the confines of ‘military necessity’ and a clear breach of the “Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 (Laws of the War) and its 1977 Protocols (1 and 11) which the State of Israel must have ratified as a ‘49th Member-State of the United Nations on May 12, 1949’.
"The Four Geneva Conventions have clearly laid down procedures for Inter-State and Intra-State Armed Conflicts under the Doctrines of “the Jus In Bellum”, “the Jus Ad Bellum” and “the Jus Post Bellum” as well as the ‘Principles of Use of Force, Proportionality of Force and Legitimate Self Defense” are incorporated.
"The Geneva Conventions had also in 1977 received additional two “Protocols 1 and 11” for purpose of strengthening the protection of civilian and property victims of the International Armed Conflict (Inter-State) and Non-International Armed Conflict (Intra-State) and placement of limits on the way wars are fought.
"Among them are prohibition of attacks on civilian homes and religious centers and symbols and protection of civilian populations, journalists and humanitarian aid workers, etc in situations of Inter-State or Intra-State armed conflicts. Others are prohibition of acts of torture, starvation, etc."
It added, "The leaders of the State of Israel including its war planners and policymakers must refrain from turning the City of Gaza into Rubbles or Tents”. Since the Israeli Intelligence Services are one of the most sophisticated and respected in the world, time has come for them to locate and spot the exact locations where the Israeli hostages and the enclaves of the Jihadist Hamas and Hezbollah are located including whether the Israeli hostages are being held ‘within the sovereign or outside sovereign territories of Israel and those of its adversaries’.
"The exact location of such places using “Man-Mental-Machine Intelligence and Investigations” is extremely important so as to protect and save the innocent Palestinian population and their homes from further attacks and destructions. It is also extremely important for the leaders of Israel not to limit their searches to ‘Palestinian territories” alone as it is possible the hostages have been taken to the territories or hideouts of those bankrolling the Hamas and the Hezbollah.”