GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Hamas Movement said that the Palestinian people are victims of ongoing savage terrorism carried out by a fascist government in full view of the world. Hamas called for this terrorism to be criminalized, its perpetrators prosecuted, and for serious international efforts to be made to halt the aggression, end the occupation of Palestinian land, and secure justice and legitimate rights for the Palestinian people.
In a statement released on Thursday marking the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, Hamas said, “Today, August 21, the United Nations and the international community commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism around the world, while a state of paralysis, negligence, and complicity continues internationally, particularly through the US and some Western governments’ support for the Zionist-occupation regime in its genocidal war, starvation, and destruction of all aspects of human life. These crimes are being carried out by the fascist occupation government against more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas pointed out that this war has been ongoing for 685 days, claiming the lives of more than 62,000 martyrs and injuring around 160,000 others, the majority of them women and children, constituting a flagrant violation of international laws, UN resolutions, and universal human values.
The Movement stressed that the UN’s commemoration of this day, along with its institutions and the broader international community, places a political, legal, ethical, and humanitarian responsibility on them all in the face of “the continuing Zionist terrorism against the Palestinian people, their land, and their sanctities”. Hamas emphasized the urgent need to act seriously to end the aggression and bring the occupation to an end.
The statement affirmed that realizing the slogan “Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism” cannot be achieved merely through issuing statements condemning “Zionist terrorism.” Rather, it requires ending the occupation, the root cause of terrorism, and activating international legal mechanisms to prosecute its leaders as war criminals responsible for killing children, women, and civilians through bombings, starvation, and siege.
Hamas further declared that the martyrs of the Palestinian people over the past seven decades, including those killed in the ongoing genocidal war, starvation, and aggression in Gaza and the occupied West Bank for over 22 months, are not mere numbers. They are victims of “Zionist terrorism carried out by a murderous occupier, backed by US support and shielded by international silence and complicity,” it added.
The Movement strongly condemned “the blatant double standards adopted by the United States and certain governments and organizations in dealing with the victims of Zionist terrorism, aligning themselves with the executioner rather than the victim.” Hamas held them responsible for partnering in and supporting this terrorism.
The statement called on the United Nations and all human rights and humanitarian organizations to make this international day an occasion to honor and remember the victims of Palestinian people subjected to relentless “Zionist terrorism” across the occupied land. It urged that the day be considered as an opportunity to raise voices and intensify all forms of pressure “to stop the aggression, genocide, and starvation, and to bring the leaders of the occupation to justice.”
