South Africa has set up a toll-free line to Palestine to assist South Africans who have relatives in Gaza to establish their conditions as Israel’s “unwarranted attacks” on the tiny strip of land of two million people continued unabated, killing dozens of people in the crowded refugee settlement.
Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation deputy director general responsible for the Middle East, Anil Sooklal said on Sunday that the toll-free line “has been set up to assist South Africans that may want to get in contact with relatives, friends or family that are in Palestine.”
“It (the toll-free line) is there to try and make contact with the relatives and friends through our office in Ramallah as there is a great deal of concern by South Africans in terms of the catastrophe that is unfolding in Palestine, especially in Gaza City, due to the unwarranted attacks by the Israeli defence forces on the defence-less Palestinians,” Sooklal said.
Officials in Gaza said the enclave had lost some 150 people during three-week-long bombardment by Israel.
Tel-Aviv’s relentless bombardment of Gaza, ostensibly against the Hamas militant group, has also destroyed high-rise buildings in the city – reducing them to rubble — on the pretext that Hamas had taken sanctuary in them.
The militants continue to retaliate against the Zionist state, using crude home-made rockets thrown at cities in southern Israel – killing at least a dozen Israelis.
South Africa, which has seen anti-Israel protests in the past week, has strongly condemned “the unjust and vicious attacks Israel has unleashed on Palestinian civilians”.
Pretoria called Tel Aviv to immediately stop all its hostilities and comply with international law as an overseer of the occupied territory of Palestine which it grabbed after the six-day war with Arabs states in1967.
NM/jn/APA