Mvezo Komkhulu – Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandlesizwe Dalibhunga (ZMD) Mandela – grandson of international statesman Nelson Mandela – has condemned Israeli raids into the West Bank that have left many dead in the Palestinian city of Nablus.
Speaking from Mvezo Komkhulu (Great Place), Nkosi ZMD Mandela said: “We condemn in the strongest terms the ongoing barbarity of the Apartheid Israel regime against Palestinian civilians”.
Firstpost is reporting that a daytime Israeli military raid on Wednesday morning turned Nablus, the Palestinian commercial centre, into a war zone.
Explosions and gunfire sounded as Israeli troops entered the old city,
Israeli military forces now face accusations of killing of at least 11 Palestinians and wounding more than 100 others.
“It is the latest bloody escalation in a months-long surge of Israeli raids into the occupied territory that has led to the deaths of some 200 Palestinians and the arrests of at least 2 600 others,” reports Firstpost.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new ultranationalist coalition has vowed to take a hard-line stance against the Palestinians and to entrench Israeli rule over lands they seek for a future state.
Nkosi ZMD Mandela said: “The massacre of the Zionist occupation force against the Palestinian people in Nablus is symptomatic of its systematic genocide and ethnic cleansing that the Apartheid regime of Israel has been conducting for the past seven decades”.
Nkosi ZMD Mandela added: “This year has seen a rapid escalation in the atrocities perpetrated and the brutal killing of 11 innocent people and 71 injured in Nablus is a sign of the impunity with which the Apartheid Israel regime acts in full glare of the international community.
“We will not remain silent and call on all peaceful loving people in the world to condemn these heinous actions and demand that the Apartheid Israel regime be held to account for its crimes against humanity.”
Israel, which insists its military raids target Palestinian militants, did not report any casualties among its troops.
Last month, on 28 January, a gunman killed seven people outside a synagogue.
Soon after the synagogue attack, Israeli police renewed calls for citizens with licences to carry guns, while Israel National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said more people should get permits to bear arms.
Since then, tensions have been heightened.
