August 16, 2024: The CWRC stated that the occupation army and colonizers set 273 fires targeting citizens' lands and properties after October 7, 2023.The head of the Commission, Minister Mu'ayyad Shaa’ban, said that the occupation army and colonizers had exploited the terrible aggression launched by the occupation state against our people in Gaza, by carrying out many crimes, the most prominent of which are fires, in a clear insistence on restoring and reproducing the behavior of official state terrorism by terrorizing the civilians and destroying their property, in order to forcibly displace them and to besiege their presence in “cantons”.
Mr. Shaa’ban explained that after October 7, the Israeli army and the colonizers had deliberately caused 273 fires in citizens’ properties and fields, the most recent of which was the fire the was set in the village of Jit, east of Qalqilia. He added that these fires were concentrated in the governorates of Nablus which was exposed to 120 fires, then Ramallah and Al-Bireh which witnessed 42 fires, and Jenin governorate where 26 fires were recorded. However, among these fires, 77 fires had affected citizens' lands, fields and crops, while 196 fires targeted citizens' properties, including residential apartments, buildings, vehicles and others. Mr. Shaa’ban also noted that of these fires, 56 were caused by the Israeli military raids and assaults, while 9 fires resulted by the joint attacks by the Israeli army and the colonizers. Meanwhile, the colonizers were responsible for the majority of these fires, igniting 208 fires.
Mr. Shaa’ban explained that setting fires is considered an escalating mechanism that causes great damage to Palestinian properties, and that the occupying state supports the perpetration of such attacks which terrorize the civilians and cause serious loses that affect the Palestinian social and economic life. He added that the continuation of such attacks under the guise of war and emergency laws represents a blatant challenge to international norms and laws.
Mr. Shaa’ban also pointed out that, since October 7, 2023, the colonizers’ attacks has resulted in the martyrdom of 18 Palestinians, injuries to over 785, and the displacement of 26 Bedouin communities. These figures show the powers granted to the terrorist groups that receive official support in the form of funding and protection, the thing which contradict international positions and laws that condemn the colonial settlement project and the official institution in the occupying state that sponsors these colonizers’ attacks and seeks to expand their project.
Mr. Shaa’ban also recalled the tragedies of burning the child “Mohammad abu Khdair” in 2014 and the burning of Dawabsheh family in 2015 by the colonizers, and the ongoing attempts to carry out more crimes that demonstrate and reflect the fascist face of the occupation. He also called on the international community to take its responsibilities in imposing serious sanctions on the colonizers and the occupying state, which sponsors and supports the colonial settlement terrorism project in the Palestinian land.