The Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria Abdullah Shawesh has said that the release of all hostages taken by both Hamas and the Israeli government in the ongoing war in Gaza, as one of the demands requiring urgent attention.
The government also sought the setting up of an independent commission of inquiry by the UN “and with full participation of the African Union and EU.”
The demands were made by the country’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Abdullah Shawesh, at a media parley at the weekend in in Lagos.
The media interaction, facilitated by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), was attended by the organisation’s Secretary General, Prof Is-haq Oloyede.
Israeli onslaught in Gaza has claimed about 27,000 people, mostly women and children, including journalists and aid workers, according to Aljazeera Live Tracker report.
Mr Oloyede said NSCIA does not see the ongoing war in Gaza as a religious affair but based on humanity, adding the two countries of Palestine and Israel have both Muslims and non-Muslims as victims.
He called on global leaders to rise in the defence of humanity, saying everyone should be concerned about the needless war.
The NSCIA’s scribe also urged the media to be fair and just in their reportage of the crisis, saying reporting based on religious sentiments would amount to being unfair to humanity.
Addressing the journalists, the ambassador, Mr Shawesh said the government of Palestine has always preached peace and condemned violent response to the illegal occupation of Gaza by the Israelis.
He said the persistent attack on Gaza and the continued hostage-taking on both sides is a gross human rights abuse that must be condemned by every right-thinking person.
Mr Shawesh noted about 105 Israeli hostages and more than 4,000 Palestinian hostages should be released for the sake of humanity, calling on all leaders of the world to pave the way for their release.
He regretted that since the war broke out more than 4,000 Palestinians have been arrested and jailed by the Israeli government, noting that tens of thousands of people have been killed and thousands of homes now levelled in Gaza.
“The war didn’t just break out on 7 October but long ago. For a long time, Palestinians were being killed and molested even on camera to show the world and the generations to come the mowing down of innocent lives,” he said.
He said: “We need an independent commission of inquiry to conduct investigations into what happened on 7 October, before the date and even after it. This should be established by the UN Security Council with full participation by the AU, EU and others.
“We need investigations into every single hour between 1917 and 2023 so that the world could know the truth and nothing but the truth. We used to be killed for fun in the West Bank. They used to do this in the presence of the camera to be kept for their children.”
