MOSCOW, October 30./TASS/. The State Duma (lower house of parliament) committees on International Affairs and on Family Issues, as well as Deputy Speaker Anna Kuznetsova, have submitted for the full body’s review a draft appeal to the United Nations, inter-parliamentary organizations, and the parliaments of various countries worldwide over the mass deaths of children and the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone.
The text of the document, as posted on the Duma’s website, states that amid the worsening humanitarian disaster in the Middle East the parliamentarians "see it as fundamentally important and exigent" to urge the UN and the parliaments of the world to support "the demand to the parties to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to immediately and without preconditions cease hostilities and stop the indiscriminate use of lethal weapons, leading to the death of civilians, primarily innocent children and teenagers."
The document cites data from the UN Children's Fund and other human rights organizations not linked to the parties to the conflict that within the first three weeks of hostilities alone "almost 3,000 children were killed in Palestine and Israel, while over 5,000 minors were injured." More than 400 children are injured or killed in the conflict zone on a daily basis. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, children account for 40% of all deaths, the document said.
The legislators emphasize that the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international covenants on human rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child are being grossly violated, primarily with regard to minors. "Not only violence, the killings of civilians and hostage-taking are a crime, but also the bombing and blockading of residential neighborhoods, and the creation of obstacles to the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid," as well as forced resettlement, the draft appeal said.
The document also noted that Washington and London’s blocking of efforts by the UN Security Council amply demonstrates "the opportunistic and highly politicized approach of Western countries" to the issue of a ceasefire and efforts to stop a new round of enmity and violence in the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering rocket attacks on Gaza as well as some districts in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.