Effects of the Israeli bombing on Rafah in the Gaza Strip (Getty)

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemned the ongoing Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip and the expansion of indiscriminate attacks on the city of Rafah, south of the Strip. Al-Azhar also warned of an “unprecedented” humanitarian catastrophe.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said in a statement yesterday, Tuesday, “The Israeli aggression led to the martyrdom and injury of hundreds of Palestinians, most of them children and women, in clear disregard for international warnings of the consequences of targeting the city, which houses more than 1.5 million Palestinians and lacks the basic necessities of life.”

The organization warned of "the danger of expanding and escalating the pace of the Israeli aggression, which constitutes a continuation of the crime of genocide, deepening human suffering in the Gaza Strip, and an unacceptable attempt to forcibly displace the Palestinian people."

According to the statement, Israel's practices in Gaza are "a blatant challenge to the decision of the International Court of Justice, which demanded that Israel, the occupying power, take urgent measures to prevent all acts included in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide."

The organization also condemned the continued attacks, incitement and organized terrorism practiced by extremist settler groups and Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian citizens, their land, property and sanctities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The organization renewed its call on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibilities regarding the need to comprehensively stop the Israeli aggression and ensure the unconditional delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Al-Azhar warns

For its part, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif condemned the Israeli aggression that targeted people in the city of Rafah, crowded with displaced people, which led to the death of more than 100 people, half of them children, in one attack.

Al-Azhar warned in a statement issued yesterday, Tuesday, "of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe if silence remains regarding the dangerous criminal plan to storm Rafah, which is home to about one and a half million displaced people who left their homes and lands from northern, central, and southern Gaza in search of a safe haven."

Al-Azhar called for "the necessity of uniting in confronting the crimes of the occupying state against Rafah, especially after it turned a deaf ear to the global calls issued by various active forces in the international community."

Al-Azhar stressed that “failure to provide relief to the innocent Palestinians today and not tomorrow will lead to the death of tens of thousands of innocent people, women, the elderly, children and youth, fleeing the fires of aggression in a new crime of genocide that will be added to the record of genocide crimes for more than 75 years.”

He called on the international community and active forces to "bear responsibility for this catastrophic double threat of killing and extermination, preventing adequate humanitarian and relief aid to the Gaza Strip, and eliminating all aspects of life in the isolated strip."

The Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation (official) said last Sunday that the Israeli army had approved an operational plan to launch a ground operation in Rafah.

Regional and international warnings are escalating regarding the Israeli bombing of the city of Rafah, with preparations for a ground invasion, and the danger this poses to hundreds of thousands of displaced people who have taken refuge there as the last refuge in the far south of the Strip.

Since last October 7, Israel, which is on trial before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing “genocide” crimes against the Palestinians, has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of Tuesday left 28,473 martyrs and 68,146 injured, most of them children and women, in addition to Thousands missing under the rubble.

Source: Anadolu Agency