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 UN 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 Sept. 18, the UN General Assembly mandated Switzerland to organize 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 upon in the Gaza Strip in January that allowed for the 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 the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally of official Israeli figures.
The Israeli retaliation has killed more than 48,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN has deemed reliable.
The first phase of the Israel-Hamas truce was drawing to a close on Saturday, but negotiations on the next stage, which should secure a permanent ceasefire, have so far been inconclusive.
The ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19 after more than 15 months of war.