Algeria announced that it had submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, while the International Court of Justice begins holding hearings on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Algerian state television reported that Algeria presented, on Sunday, a “non-amendable” draft resolution before the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
He added, "Algeria has put the latest non-amendable version of the draft Security Council resolution in blue (non-amendable) related to the situation in Palestine, especially in Gaza."
He explained that the draft resolution, “which calls for an immediate ceasefire, will be presented to members of the Security Council for a vote next Tuesday.”
On the other hand, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Tom-Greenfield, said earlier, Sunday, that the Algerian draft resolution “will not be adopted” if it is put to a vote in its current form.
Greenfield stated, in a statement on the US mission’s website, that the United States is working on a prisoner exchange deal between the Israeli occupation and the Hamas movement that would bring an immediate and sustainable period of calm to Gaza for at least 6 weeks.
New sessions of international justice
Meanwhile, on Monday, the International Court of Justice will begin holding hearings on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The sessions come in the context of the United Nations General Assembly’s request to obtain a fatwa from the court on the effects of the Israeli occupation that has continued for more than 57 years, and will continue for six days between 19 and 26 February.
During the sessions, the court is scheduled to hear briefings from 52 countries, in addition to the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the League of Arab States.
Each country and organization will provide a thirty-minute briefing during the six-day hearings.
The duties of the Court, which is the main judicial body of the United Nations, include first: resolving legal disputes that arise between states in accordance with international law. Second: Expressing an advisory opinion on legal matters referred to it.
The International Court of Justice will provide a non-binding advisory opinion on this issue regarding the legal consequences of Israel's policies and practices in occupied Palestine.
While the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice for violating the Genocide Convention was considered to mean a legal dispute between two countries, the advisory opinion sessions that begin tomorrow do not represent a case in which the two countries confront each other.
If the International Court of Justice issues an opinion in which it says that the occupation violates international law, pressure on Israel will likely increase, and countries that are openly supported by the international community will be forced to reconsider their position.
Horrific crimes at Nasser Hospital unknown fate of patients arrested by the occupation and harassment of doctors
The Israeli occupation army transformed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, into a military barracks after besieging it for days, and arrested dozens of patients and doctors. Hebrew media also announced that the director of the complex, Atef al-Hout, was being investigated by the Military Intelligence and Shin Bet services.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip revealed serious violations committed by the Israeli occupation army at the Nasser Medical Complex, which was out of service after being besieged for days.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a statement, on Sunday, that the occupation transformed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, into a military barracks and put it out of service. It also arrested the intensive care doctor, who has no one else to follow up on critical cases, and forced the displaced people there to leave. .
Al-Qudra added that the occupation forces arrested dozens of patients who could not move while they were on treatment beds, put them in trucks, and took them to an unknown destination, putting their lives in danger.
The occupation also detained the medical staff in the maternity building in the complex, handcuffed them, and beat them after stripping them of their clothes, according to the spokesman, who confirmed that there are only 25 medical staff left in the Nasser Complex and they cannot deal with cases that need extreme clinical care.
He pointed out that there was a power outage in the Nasser Medical Complex 3 days ago, causing the patients to stop receiving oxygen and killing 7 of them, warning of the martyrdom of dozens of serious cases.
The power outage also led to a complete outage of water to the complex, while sewage water flooded the emergency departments in the surgery building, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, stressing that the occupation has been refusing to coordinate to repair them for several days.
Al-Qudra pointed out that 3 women, including a doctor, gave birth at Nasser Medical Complex in dire and unsafe conditions, without water, food, electricity, and hygiene.
In a related context, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that forces from Military Intelligence and the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet) investigated the director of the Nasser complex, Atef Al-Hout, and it has not yet been decided to arrest him.
World Health warns
In turn, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza was out of service after a week-long siege followed by continuous raids.
Ghebreyesus explained that the World Health Organization team was not allowed - yesterday, Saturday and the day before yesterday, Friday - to enter the hospital to assess the patients’ conditions and urgent medical needs, even though the team arrived there to deliver fuel in cooperation with partners.
He pointed out that about 200 patients are still inside the hospital, at least 20 of whom need to be transferred urgently to other hospitals to receive health care. He warned that the cost of delaying their transfer would be their lives, calling for facilitating access to patients and admission to the hospital.
On the same level, the Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that the Israeli occupation continues its siege of Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, for the 27th day in a row, while targeting the fourth floor and the central maintenance room of the hospital, and firing directly at the hospital and at the fuel tanks.
In the latest toll announced by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, the number of martyrs rose to 28,985, the majority of whom were women and children, and the wounded to 68,883, since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on the seventh of last October.