CAIRO, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit called on the United Nations Friday to prevent Israel's plan to "forcibly transfer" the people in the Gaza Strip.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Aboul-Gheit described Israel's proposed forced transfer of Gaza's people as a "flagrant violation" of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from relocating the population of an occupied territory, the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization said in a statement.
Earlier on Friday, the Israeli military instructed nearly half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents to move to the southern region in anticipation of an operation against the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
In the letter, Aboul-Gheit emphasized that Israel's planned population transfer goes beyond a military operation targeting Hamas, criticizing it as "an act of revenge that employs military force against vulnerable civilians in the enclave."
The AL chief concluded by calling on the UN secretary-general and the international community to "firmly and clearly" condemn the Israeli plan to relocate the population of northern Gaza and to work diligently to prevent its implementation.
Entering its seventh day, the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict, which was ignited by Hamas' surprise attack in Israel, has so far left thousands dead and wounded on both sides, in addition to Hamas's seizure of tens of hostages. ■
