An official European Parliament delegation that visited the besieged Gaza Strip after the recent Israeli onslaught on the blockaded area says Israel has committed “genocide” against the defenseless Palestinians, Press TV reports.
The delegation, which includes 13 members of the European Parliament, has called on the EU to break diplomatic ties with Israel and implement sanctions against Tel Aviv because of the war crimes it has committed against the Palestinian people.
“I don’t think it is too strong a word, not when you think of how genocide is described; it’s described as the partial or the whole destruction of people; and what we are seeing happen in Gaza, in Palestine, is the destruction of Palestinians,” Martina Anderson, an Irish member of the European Parliament, told Press TV.
The delegation, which has just returned to the Belgian capital, Brussels, from the Middle East, has also accused the West of turning a blind eye to the Israeli crimes against Palestinians.
The politicians also accused Tel Aviv of continuing to break international law by engaging in land grabs to build settlements in Palestine.
Without putting an end to the settlement policy of the Tel Aviv regime, it is not possible to “have peace not only in Palestine but also in the region,” Neoklis Silikyotis, a Cypriot member of the European Parliament, said.
Israel’s recent war on Gaza ended on August 26 with an Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect after negotiations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Israel started pounding the blockaded enclave in early July, inflicting heavy losses on the Palestinian land. Almost 2,140 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including women, children and elderly people, were killed in the 50 days of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. Around 11,000 others were injured.
Israel says 72 Israelis were also killed, but Hamas puts the number at much higher.
