Swiss to host conference on occupied Palestinian territories

GENEVA: Switzerland said it will host an international conference on March 7 on the protection of Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories, as called for in a United Nations vote.

The 196 signatories to the Geneva Convention will be invited to the meeting, which will be attended by ambassadors, a spokesperson for the Swiss foreign ministry said.

On September 18, the UN General Assembly mandated Switzerland to organise the conference, given that the Alpine country is the depository of the international treaties setting out the rules of war and humanitarian law.

Such “conferences of high contracting parties” cannot take binding decisions but can “reaffirm the rules of international humanitarian law and the obligations”, the Swiss government says on its website.

Since the UN vote and after 15 months of intensive war, a tenuous ceasefire was agreed in the Gaza Strip in January that allowed for a release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and for humanitarian aid to reach the besieged enclave, where 90 percent of housing has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers have stepped up their attacks on Palestinian civilians, while the Israeli army has launched a major security operation that has displaced some 40,000 Palestinians.

The Gaza war began after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

The Israeli war on Gaza killed more than 48,000 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures endorsed the UN.