As world marks 75th anniv. of Geneva Conventions, rogue Israel continues to mock intl. law

Press TV Staff Writer

The world marked, with uncharacteristic fanfare, the 75^th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions on Monday, just two days after the Israeli regime carried out yet another deadly massacre in the Gaza Strip.

More than 100 Palestinians, including women and children, were massacred in the latest Israeli airstrike on a school building sheltering displaced people in Gaza City’s Daraj district on Saturday.

The victims were torn apart by bombs reportedly weighing 2,000 pounds each, according to media reports citing Gaza government authorities. The bombs were provided to Israel by the US.

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli genocidal war since October 7, 2023, and 69 percent of them are children and women, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Media Office.

Almost all medical facilities in the besieged territory have become non-functional due to infrastructure damages as well as the lack of electricity and fuel to keep the essential health services running.

The number of massacres committed by the Israeli regime in 311 days of continues is 3,486, in which 49,897 people have been killed or missing – most likely trapped under rubble and dead.

The number of children killed in the ongoing genocidal war is 16,456 and the number of women killed is 11,088, according to figures released by the Gaza Media Office on Monday.

Four Geneva Conventions, including 400 articles, were adopted on August 12, 1949, to define rules in the conduct of war and to uphold the values of humanity in the event of war.

Over the years, the universally ratified four Geneva Conventions, along with their additional protocols, became the keystone of international humanitarian law, intended to protect innocent civilians.

However, 75 years on, international humanitarian law has been turned obsolete and redundant, and in the words of Mirjana Spoljaric, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), it’s “under strain, disregarded, undermined to justify violence.”

In Numbers: 311 days of death and destruction unleashed by Israeli regime in Gaza

The Israeli regime

Speaking to media persons on Monday at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Spoljaric said the world must “recommit to this robust protective framework for armed conflict, one that follows the premise of protecting life instead of justifying death.”

The four conventions have been repeatedly and brazenly violated by the Israeli regime amid the ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, with the financial and military support of the US.

The UN Commissioner-General of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in a tweet on Monday asserted that many of the UN conventions have been “blatantly broken” by the regime.

“Our shared values enshrined In the Conventions are at stake as is our shared humanity. It is time to re-instate those values and re-commit to the Conventions,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.

Article 12 of the Geneva Conventions says all wounded or sick should be protected in all circumstances, and prohibits any attempt to inflict violence against them.

It further states that women “shall be treated with all consideration due to their sex.”

Over the past 312 days, the majority of fatalities from Israeli genocidal bombardments have been children and women, accounting for 69 percent of total fatalities.

The apartheid regime has bombarded all hospitals and health centers across the territory in the past 11 months, killing sick and wounded as well.

The ongoing war against Palestinians, according to legal experts, particularly violates the Fourth Geneva Convention that sought to protect civilians living under occupation.

Sam Husseini, a US-based veteran journalist, called out Vedant Patel, the US Department of State spokesman, during a press briefing on Monday on evasiveness and deceit about whether the US government recognizes the Geneva Conventions as applying to Gaza or not.

“Today is the 75th Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. The US government shreds them in its support of Israel while pretending not to,” Husseini wrote in a post on X after the briefing.

He had also grilled Patel at a presser in April when the US spokesman evaded his question.

Geneva Conventions: Words on paper?

The Geneva Conventions, crafted in the wake of World War II, represent an enduring commitment to protest those not engaged in hostilities—civilians, the wounded, and prisoners of war.

Husseini also responded to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s tweet on Monday in which the top American diplomat claimed that Washington is “committed to respecting international humanitarian law and mitigating suffering in armed conflict.”

“Why do you refuse to recognize the Geneva Conventions as applying to the Palestinians? Your spokespeople have evaded and deceived every time I’ve asked them. Hypocrisy is too kind a word for your genocidal criminality,” Husseini said.

Josh Ruebner, Policy Director at IMEU Policy Project, also took to X to call out Blinken's lies.

"You don't get to praise the Geneva Conventions when you're rushing weapons to Israel to enable it to violate almost every single clause in the convention as it continues to inflict genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza," Ruebner wrote.

The Palestinian government in a post on X on Monday said the Israeli regime is violating the Geneva Conventions “every day and every second.”

“As we mark 75 years of the Geneva Conventions we also mark 310 days of Israel’s genocide; 57 years of Israel’s illegal occupation; and 76 years of Israel’s ongoing Nakba and Israel’s systematic violations of every tenant of the Geneva Conventions with full impunity,” it wrote.

“Every day and every second of Israel’s illegal presence in Palestine is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.”

Craig Mokhiber, a human rights lawyer and former UN official, also took to X to denounce the Tel Aviv regime for “systematically violating virtually every provision” of the Geneva Conventions.

“Today is the 75th Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. Israel ratified the 4th Geneva Convention (protecting civilians) in 1951 and has systematically violated virtually every provision ever since. Other parties are obliged by the convention to act to stop Israel’s violations,” he wrote.

“Those that do not are in breach of their legal obligations, and have no moral standing to criticize any other party in this or any other conflict.”

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