Palestinians seek independent probe of Israeli atrocities in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 21 (APP):The Palestinian envoy to the UN has called on the world body to set up an independent commission to investigate Israeli crimes after four more Palestinians were killed in the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday.
Ambassador Riyad Mansour made the comments during a news conference in New York on Friday, expressing hope that the Geneva-based Human Rights Council would approve a resolution authorizing a commission to investigate these crimes.
“It seems that the Israeli occupying forces are not restraining themselves, they’re not listening to anyone and they are continuing with this massacre,” Mansour told reporters.
For a fourth week, several thousand people in Gaza staged peaceful rallies on the border with Israel to protest its blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory and press for a “right of return” of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel.
Israeli soldiers firing from across a border fence killed four Palestinians Friday, bringing the number killed since the protest marches started in late March to 32, and the number wounded by live rounds to more than 1,600, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The U.N. Security Council has not commented on the protests because the United States, Israel’s closest ally, has blocked proposed statements supported by most members critical of the high death toll and Israel’s use of force against protesters.
The Palestinian envoy also accused Israel of neutralizing the international Criminal Court, saying that Tel Aviv could not be part of a probe into the atrocities it has committed against the Palestinian nation.
Furthermore, Mansour noted that all of the Israeli criminals must face punishment, criticizing the international community for being silent about the Israeli crimes.
Meanwhile, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov denounced Israel’s atrocities in the besieged enclave.
The Palestinian rally, dubbed the “Great March of Return,” will last until May 15, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of Israel.
The Great March of Return began on March 30 and will last for six weeks. Israel has responded to the peaceful demonstrations with an iron fist, killing more than 30 unarmed Palestinians over the past three weeks.
The regime in Tel Aviv has come under criticism in the international community for allowing its snipers to open fire on the unarmed protesters that come close to the fence.
The weeks-long march has been organized by the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, which governs Gaza. It evokes a longtime call for Palestinian refugees to regain ancestral homes in the territories under Israeli occupation.
Every year on May 15, Palestinians all over the world hold demonstrations to commemorate Nakba Day, which marks the anniversary of the forcible eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland by Israelis in 1948.
More than 760,000 Palestinians – now estimated to number nearly five million with their descendants – were driven out of their homes on May 14, 1948.
Since 1948, the Israeli regime has denied Palestinian refugees the right to return, despite UN resolutions and international law that upholds people’s right to return to their homelands.