Annan: Israeli Destruction of Gaza Towers Illegal
Mon October 27, 2003 01:57 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan accused Israel Monday of violating international law in destroying three Gaza apartment towers and urged it to end actions making a Middle East peace deal harder to reach.
"The secretary-general reminds the Israeli authorities that house demolitions amount to collective punishment, which is a clear violation of international humanitarian law," a U.N. spokesman said.
"During the past month, some 200 buildings in the Gaza Strip were destroyed, rendering more than 2,000 people homeless. In this connection, he deplores the destruction by the Israeli military of three 13-story buildings in the Gaza Strip Saturday night," the spokesman said.
The Israeli army said it blew up the buildings in retaliation for Friday's deadly attack on the nearby Israeli settlement of Netzarim in which three soldiers were killed, two of them women.
Troops evacuated more than 2,000 Palestinians from surrounding homes before razing the towers, which the army said had served as staging points for the attack on Netzarim.
Annan's spokesman said the secretary-general believes Israelis and Palestinians will enjoy real security only if a comprehensive peace deal is reached "in which two sovereign and independent states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders."
"He strongly urges Israel to cease and desist immediately from all actions, such as continued settlement activity and the so-called security fence, that make that outcome more difficult by creating unilateral facts on the ground," the spokesman said.
A resolution overwhelmingly approved by the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly last week demanded that Israel halt construction of a barrier cutting deep into Palestinian West Bank lands. The resolution required Annan to report back to the assembly within a month on Israeli compliance. Continued ... 1| 2 Next
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