An Arab League official urged Saturday that Israel has to pay the full price for its lethal attack on Gaza-bound 'Freedom Flottila' aid ships. Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League for Palestine Affairs Ambassador Mohamed Subeeh said in news remarks that the way to punish Israel should go through the International Criminal Court (ICC). In this context, he said Turkey was going through this way, given that the fatal Israeli attack targeted Turkish-flagged aid ships in a show of Israel's disrespect of its relations with Turkey. He hailed a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution to set up an independent fact-finding committee over the Israeli crime as a "good step". He added that Arab countries, in collaboration with several other countries, including Turkey, were also pressing for a UN general assembly meeting on "the Israeli crime against humanity." However, he rapped the US for failing to condemn the Israeli attack on the aid ships on international waters off Gaza, calling on Washington to stop such Israeli crimes. Defending Arab support for Gaza, Subeeh said Arab countries have sent official and unofficial humanitarian aid worth USD 2.2 billion to the Gazans since Israel imposed its blockade on the salient. He called for all crossing points, not only Egypt's Rafah crossing, to be reopened for humanitarian supplies to Palestinians in Gaza. The recent Israeli raid on the 'Freedom Flotilla' sparked vehement world outcry, which has still not abated. Israel has been imposing a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip since the radical Islamist movement Hamas took de facto control of the enclave in 2007.
