H.E. Mr. Ahmad Abdelrazek:

There was a question about why we do not go before the International Criminal Court. It is because we want to give an opportunity and a chance for peace. The day we go to the ICC will mean the door is closed and for the moment we do not want to close the door. That is why we are asking that the international community does more to change the status quo. In my last sentence I was clear about it and I said we still have hope, but for how long?
Deputy Mitchell asked a question and I agree with her. We all agree with her. It is not only a question of image; it is a question of what we believe. We believe in justice and we cannot accept injustice. As I said, we condemn and we are against extrajudicial punishment whatever it is, whether killing or any kind of punishment. Are we going to bring them to justice? I do not know because the situation is confusing. We do not know who did it. Are they going to apprehend them? We do not know. Like Deputy Mitchell I am sorry to see it but I repeat what I have said. It is not only me or other officials who take this view - all officials of the Government condemn this practice. However, when I talk to ordinary people on the telephone in Palestine it is clear to me that they are against it. Their view is that if tomorrow someone suspects them and claims they are collaborating with Israel then someone will come and kill them. Nobody accepts that.
There was a question concerning human shields. We do not have any evidence that Hamas has used people as human shields.

I do not know if it does and there is no evidence of it. Nobody has reported that it has happened, but we will wait and see. That is why we await the United Nations Human Rights Council Commission which will go to Gaza and find out what is really happening. At the same time we are sure that, as the committee heard at the beginning, Israel has destroyed one quarter of Gaza. We can now see the scale of the destruction. Why was that? It was because of the Hannibal law that there would be no Israeli prisoners. They have to kill everybody. That is why I think they could not identify certain soldiers who had been killed at the beginning. They used the DNA because they had destroyed everything. That is why they say they do not believe they are prisoners as Hamas states and consider them to be lost. They consider them to be dead because they found parts of their bodies. All quarters were so heavily bombarded that nobody survived - no Israeli soldiers, nobody. That is why the casualties were very heavy among the Palestinian civilians and houses were destroyed.

I hope there will be no tunnels. When the Algerians resisted the French, one of the Algerian French army officers arrested a member of the Algerian resistance and asked why they were putting bombs in baskets with the potential to explode. The answer was, “If you give me your fighters, I will give you my baskets.” I do not justify this, but I say everyone considers the means by which we agree or do not agree on something. That is why the only solution to all of these questions is peace; there is no other way. Israel cannot destroy Hamas and knows that it cannot destroy it. Hamas is part of the people in Gaza and the committee has seen how people supported it, although they are in a catastrophic, disastrous situation because they are their people. The only solution is peace. All the power of Israel cannot destroy Hamas. It can kill many people in Hamas, but it cannot destroy it because it is part of the people and so it must destroy all the people. That is why President Abbas always says that even when there is a war against Gaza, we must go to negotiations to find a solution.