From left: Ernesto D Plasencia Escalante, Ambassador of Cuba, Munir Ghannam, Ambassador of Palestine, and Fernando Centeno, Second Secretary and Financial Affairs Officer at the Embassy of Venezuela, during a function held at the residence of the Palestinian envoy in Doha yesterday. Salim Matramkot
By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: Embassies of the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of the Americas (ALBA) here yesterday, joined their governments to express solidarity with the Palestinians.
Diplomatic missions of Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador here in a joint statement condemned the escalation of violence and death in the hands of Israelis in the Gaza Strip, at an event held at the Cuban ambassador’s residence.
The statement was presented by Ernesto D Plasencia Escalante, Ambassador of Cuba, Fernando Centeno, Second Secretary and Financial Affairs Officer, of Venezuela to Munir Ghannam, Ambassador for Palestine in Doha.
“The brutal repression of the Palestinian population has taken the lives of many innocent civilians and brought about considerable material losses compounding the hardships the people from that small and besieged territory already endure,” said the statement.
“In light of this new aggression against the Palestinian people, the embassies of the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of the Americas to Qatar, expressing the will of their governments and people, call on the international community to take all necessary steps to prevent these criminal acts against the Palestinian people from ever occurring again,” it further stated.
Escalante, the Cuban Ambassador, said: “Palestine should be the next new UN member country. The embassies of the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas once again express their support to the just cause of the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, including the creation of an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.”
Ghannam, Ambassador for Palestine appreciated the continued strong support given by ALBA to his country saying “Israel is killing the two state solution; they kill our people. Palatine should be the last occupied country.” Countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of the Americas have already expressed their solidarity to the people of Palestine.
Chavez Frias, President of Venezuela, in a recent statement condemned Israel’s recent assault on the Gaza Strip as “savage” and called for an end to “aggression” against the Palestinian people.
In its most recent assault on the Gaza Strip, which Israel called Operation Pillar of Defence, 162 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,100 injured.
Three Palestinian journalists were killed and more than a dozen injured in Israeli air strikes.
Meanwhile, Israel’s eight-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip has caused more than $1.2bn in direct and indirect damages, a spokesman for the Hamas government said yesterday.
“The total cost of damages caused by the Israeli aggression is $1.245bn,” Taher Al Nunu told reporters in Gaza City.
Nunu said the eight-day operation had completely destroyed 200 homes and partially damaged another 8,000.
Another 42 non-residential buildings, including the Hamas government headquarters, were also completely destroyed, he said. Three mosques and a health centre were levelled, and hundreds of official buildings were also partially razed, Nunu said.
The Peninsula
