Palestine's suffering started 75 years ago, not on October 7: Palestinian Authority PM Shtayyeh
Nov 09, 2023
Tel Aviv [Israel], November 9 : Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that the Palestinian suffering 'is 75 years old' and did not start on October 7, CNN reported on Thursday.
"We are a victim here... defending oneself doesn't mean occupying someone's land," Shtayyeh said at the International Humanitarian Conference for Gaza in Paris, adding that "what Israel is doing is not a war against Hamas" but a war against "all Palestinian people."
CNN reported that Shtayyeh also accused Israel of being "in clear breach of international humanitarian law," saying that "crimes are being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, people who are innocent."
Israel has been ramping up its offensive inside Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, when militants killed 1,400 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 200.
CNN reported that the Palestinian official added that "a blockage" - Israel's complete siege of Gaza - has created problems, including food shortages and attempts at deportation against Gazans working in Israel.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said Wednesday that both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes since the war broke out last month.
Israel's military pushed back against those accusations, saying it has struck Hamas targets, followed international law and sought to minimise civilian casualties.
During the Paris conference, Shtayyeh also called for an end to the conflict in order for "humanitarian relief to make sense."
"What use is offering a meal to someone who will die the next day?" he said.
Meanwhile, The Times of Israel reported that the Shtayyeh claimed that Israel's war goal of eradicating Hamas is impossible to achieve because the terror group exists as an "idea" and many of its top members aren't even in Gaza.
"The goal that they are setting--they will never reach this goal... because Hamas is not only in Gaza," he said. "Hamas is an idea, it's not only a military structure or an organization in Gaza. Hamas is in the West Bank and Lebanon and Syria, Hamas leadership is in Qatar, and everywhere. So to say that the goal is to eliminate Hamas -- it is totally not going to happen."
