“Children are being killed and women are dying, while the Palestinian people are trying to defend their land and rights,” he said.
“The pictures and reports that we receive from Gaza show the tragedy that the people of Palestine are experiencing, but the question is: Where are the Muslim rulers?” he questioned.
“Where are the people who claim to be people of conscience?” he questioned, stressing: “The barbarism and brutal cruelty to which the people of Gaza are exposed requires the intervention and support of Arab Muslim leaders and rulers.”
The war in Gaza, under Israeli bombardment since Oct. 7, began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a multi-pronged surprise attack that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israeli-occupied territories by land, sea, and air. It said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers.
The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military continues to target Gaza with intensive airstrikes that have destroyed entire neighborhoods, killing 4,651 Palestinians, including 1,873 children and 1,023 women, and injuring 14,245, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. While the figure stands at more than 1,400 people in Israel.
World failing to defend rights of Palestinians
“Innocent lives are being lost day after day, even if they are in hospitals that are supposed to be a safe haven for the wounded and sick, as well as mosques and churches being destroyed, and the world is silently witnessing this nightmare and does not move to defend the rights of these people,” the secretary-general lamented.
Questioning the position of the Arab and Islamic world in the face of the tension between Israel and Palestine, the official criticized: “Some Muslim rulers seem to have forgotten their identity, and are focusing on their personal interests rather than taking action to help the people of Gaza.”
He further asked: “Where are the international organizations and human rights organizations? Why are they not breathing? Why are they silent?”
“We see the violation of their humanitarian demands when they remain silent in the face of these ongoing crimes,” he emphasized.
“We cannot deny the role of Western rulers in worsening the situation in Gaza,” he asserted, noting: “We are concerned about human rights and the rights of women and children, but do you look at these massacres committed by the occupation? Are these murdered not children, women and elderly men?”
‘Ethnic cleansing’
“What is happening in Gaza is a Nazi Holocaust war, suspected of ethnic cleansing,” he decried.
“Before God and before subsequent generations, everyone who neglected these human disasters will be questioned,” he said.
He questioned: “Where are the representatives of the United Nations and human rights organizations? Where are you, heads of churches and the Pope of the Vatican? Where are you too, Westerners who claim to defend human rights? Will you continue to watch and close your eyes to these atrocities?”