Arab League condemns Israeli air strikes on Gaza
Shafaq News/ The Arab League condemned deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip and called on the international community to move urgently to stop escalating violence that it blamed on Israeli actions against Palestinians in Jerusalem.
An Arab League source said “the councils of Arab ambassadors in the main capitals are working to support the Palestinian position and express rejection to Israel's attacks on Jerusalem and its people, including the violations committed by the occupation forces (Israel) in the Holy Mosque, as well as their pressure on the people of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to leave the city."
The decision which is issued after the May 11 online meeting called for launching “urgent Arab and Islamic diplomatic action to protect the city of Jerusalem, to defend its Islamic and Christian sanctities, and to support the political, social, economic and humanitarian rights of its people.”
In a statement concluding their meeting, the Arab League foreign ministers said they held Israel "fully responsible for whatever follows due to its crimes, which constitute glaring violations of U.N. decrees, international law and human rights law."
It called on international organizations including the U.N. Security Council to "immediately stop the Israeli aggression and provide the necessary protection for the Palestinian people and uphold their right to worship freely and safely".
In light of events in Jerusalem, Egypt declared its "total rejection and condemnation of these oppressive Israeli practices," Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry told the League.
For his part, the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which held an emergency meeting in Jeddah, "praised the steadfastness of the Palestinian people stationed in the occupied city of Jerusalem and their response to the Israeli attacks on the holy sites", Saudi state agency SPA reported.
Israel carried out air strikes on Gaza, after Palestinian militant groups based there unleashed barrages of rockets, some close to Jerusalem. Two people have been killed in Israel from rocket fire.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 28 Palestinians, including 10 children, had been killed. Israel disputed that account, saying it had killed at least 20 Hamas fighters and that a third of the hundreds of rockets launched by militants had fallen short, causing Palestinian civilian casualties.
The violence began with confrontations between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces at al Aqsa Mosque, a compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in the heart of Jerusalem's walled Old City.
Source: Shafaq News Agency + Reuters
