SEOUL, October 26. /TASS/. The United States cannot escape responsibility for conniving at Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said.
The North Korean diplomats slammed Israel’s strike on "a public health establishment" as "an unimaginable hideous war crime and unethical crime," which violates international law. "What should not be overlooked is that Israel's such criminal act was openly committed under the undisguised patronage of the U.S.," he was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The diplomat recalled that the United States supplied Israel with "huge amounts of munitions <…> and dispatched two carrier strike groups to the waters off the Middle East, thus giving Israel a green light to massacre Palestinians without any worries." After the strike, Washington was indulging in "making absurd sophism that the incident seemed to be committed by other forces rather than Israel." "This shows that the U.S. is an accomplice who connived at and fostered Israel's genocide," he said.
According to the diplomat, the United States’ vetoing the UN Security Council resolution on humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip "for the mere reason that the "right to self-defense" of Israel was not mentioned" reveals that Washington doesn’t care about casualties among Palestinians "if Israel faithfully carries out its Middle East policy."
"The U.S., wrecker of global peace and strangler of justice, can never evade the blame for having connived at and fostered Israel's hideous war crime that ruthlessly killed Palestinians," the diplomat said.
Tensions flared up in the Middle East after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israeli territory. Hamas views its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ steps against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.
The Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was hit on October 17. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the blast killed 471 people and as many as 342 were wounded. The Palestinian side placed the blame on Israel, whereas Israel said that the explosion was caused by a botched rocket launch conducted by the Islamic Jihad group.