The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on members of Congress to condemn Israeli strikes on Gaza that killed 7 people and a raid on a village in the West Bank in support of illegal settlers.
Israeli strikes killed at least seven Palestinians in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, health officials said. In Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment killed one woman and wounded her husband and several others, medics said. Another Israeli airstrike on a vehicle reportedly killed at least four people and wounded 14 others in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood, in Gaza City, while a strike near a mosque in Khan Younis, south of the enclave, killed a local journalist, Mohammad Al-Najar, and wounded others. Later on Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike killed one person near Qarara town, in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said, taking the day’s death toll to at least seven.
SEE: Israeli strikes kill seven people in Gaza, medics say
Israeli forces have stormed the village of Arab ar-Rashayida, east of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, according to a Wafa report. Bakr Rashayda, the head of the village council, said that soldiers had raided his house and searched it. Rashayda said the raid was carried out on the pretext that he was trying to prevent settlers from bulldozing the village’s lands, and that the soldiers had threatened to arrest him if he tried to stop them again.
SEE: Israeli forces storm village east of Bethlehem
In a statement, CAIR said:
“The far-right, openly racist and genocidal Israeli government continues to slaughter Palestinians on a daily basis, support illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, and persecute those Palestinians who try to protect their homes from being stolen, all using American weapons and American taxpayer dollars. Members of Congress must take a stand against these crimes against humanity and support measures like the Stop the Settlements Act.”
Earlier today, CAIR welcomed the Stop the Settlements Act and urged Congress to pass the legislation as a necessary step toward stopping the Israeli government’s escalating campaign of ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]