PA Culture Minister: Israel is committing “massacres” in Gaza
Headline: “Protest vigil in Ramallah in condemnation of the aggression against Gaza and the destruction of the Abdallah Al-Hourani Center”
“The [PA] Ministry of Culture and Information organized a protest vigil in front of the UN headquarters in Ramallah yesterday [May 6, 2019] in condemnation of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip (referring to Israel’s response to a barrage of rockets launched from Gaza at Israeli population centers; see note below –Ed.) and the crime of the destruction of the Abdallah Al-Hourani Research Center…
[PA] Minister of Culture Atef Abu Yusuf said that this vigil comes to demonstrate against the Israeli crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip, and the massacres and all-out war that they are suffering from at the hands of the occupation state, which is directed at people, rocks, and trees. It is destroying residential buildings on the heads of their residents, culture centers, scientific research centers, and media institutions in an attempt to erase the truth about the crimes that it commits…
[PA] Government Spokesman Ibrahim Melhem emphasized that the murder of children, women, and elderly that is taking place in the Gaza Strip is a war crime that will sooner or later lead those committing it to the International Criminal Court.
He added: ‘These crimes come as a baptism of blood that [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants in order to atone through it for his sins of corruption and scandals, in order to remain on Israel’s throne at the expense of the blood of children, women, and elderly.”
May 2019 Gaza rocket attacks – The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations in Gaza launched a rocket barrage on Israeli civilian population centers on May 4, 2019, firing more than 700 rockets and murdering 4 Israelis in the course of two days. Israel responded by striking terror targets; 23 Gazans, many of them terrorists, were killed during the exchange of fire. On May 6 a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas.