A PRESS STATEMENT

 

The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa condemns the vicious bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, in Central Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians patients, including others taking shelter— among them the elderly, women and children— have been killed. We call for an immediate end of this genocidal wanton bombing campaign of Gaza, which leaves no room but to be considered ethnic cleansing.

 

Meanwhile, Apartheid Israel and their sponsors have been busy muddying the water, in desperately trying to absolve themselves from this massacre of defenceless innocent people. This attack is a heinous war crime committed by a force cheered on by supposed champions of human rights, too eager to conveniently accept a narrative of a suspect they unconditionally support.

 

Palestinians in Gaza have in the past few days been deprived of water and food in an act of collective punishment. The Zionists have denied even the supply of fuel to the besieged and blockaded city, where medics who survive targeting of hospitals have to carry out surgical procedures without electricity and basic painkillers.

 

Places of worship, blocks of homes and the only cancer treatment centre in Gaza, have not been spared from at least 1000-bombs-a-day raining on a densely-populated open-air prison where a Palestinian is killed every five minutes, since 8th October 2023. The Israeli military evacuation order of 1.1 million Palestinians in Northern Gaza is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis, evoking memories of The Nakbah of 1948.

 

The spectre of dismembered human remains strewn around the hospital in Gaza, the supposed place of healing which was also considered as a “Haven of Safety,” are a reminder of the absurdity of the claims that the Israeli operations in Gaza are about ‘the right to defend itself.’

 

As long as these genocidal and depraved attacks continue on Palestinians, we call upon the South Africa government to sever ties with Israel, in order to isolate this Zionist settler-colonial entity, for the pariah state that it is.

 

We condole those who have lost their loved ones and pray for succour for the people of Occupied Palestine.

 

Issued by:

 

The Executive Committee
Jamiatul Ulama South Africa

 

19 October 2023