Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the world on Monday to stand with the Palestinians and end the brutal Israeli aggression carried out against the innocent people of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Shtayyeh's call to the international community comes as Israel continued to launch pound Gaza City on Monday. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said it was not enough to utter condemnation and disdain toward what Israel is committing in the Gaza Strip, stressing that the international community and the United Nations Security Council had failed to hold the occupying Israelis. Shtayyeh stated: "Unfortunately, the UN Security Council has failed to reach a resolution to condemn and halt the Israeli assaults." "This means that we will go the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution where no country has a veto power," he added. The Palestinian health ministry declared that in Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip more than 198 Palestinians were killed, including 58 children and 34 women since last week. At least 1,235 people were also wounded and tens of buildings damaged in the Israeli onslaught. Amnesty International has sounded the alarm over possible war crimes being committed in the Gaza Strip, including the apparent targeting of civilians and a media building, and called on the International Criminal Court to investigate. "We are deeply concerned about the mounting death toll," the human rights organization said in a tweet on Sunday, adding: "Direct attacks on civilians are war crimes." The strikes on Monday morning heavily damaged a three-story building in Gaza City, but residents said the military warned them 10 minutes before the strike, and the building was cleared. They said many of the airstrikes hit nearby farmland. Gaza's mayor, Yahya Sarraj, said that the strikes had caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure. "If the aggression continues we expect conditions to become worse," he said. — Agencies
