RABAT, November 15. /TASS/. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki met with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, to inform her about latest developments in the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues its ground operation.

"Israel, as an occupying power, has no right to defend itself while it commits crimes and violates all the rules of international humanitarian law," the WAFA news agency quoted the minister as saying. In his opinion "the ‘defend itself’ pretext is tantamount to encouraging it to continue in its crimes and the killing of innocent civilians."

Al-Maliki also mentioned "Israeli crimes in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, the silent annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory, the terrorism of the colonialists, the daily raids on Palestinian cities, towns and camps, the prevention of movement between cities, arbitrary arrests, the demolition of homes and the killing of innocent people," committed "in a systematic and widespread policy."

The minister requested his French counterpart to "carefully view the crimes committed by Israel and the statements made by its officials, which constitute incitement and the commission of the crime of genocide."

He stressed "the need to bring aid into the Gaza Strip as quickly as possible, as many hospitals have been out of service and many schools have been targeted."

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.