UAE condemns deadly Israeli air strikes on Gaza

The United Arab Emirates joined Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the OIC in condemning Israel’s deadly operation in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) called on Israeli authorities to “halt escalation and avoid exacerbating tension and instability in the region.”

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This was in reference to the surprise pre-dawn air strikes on Tuesday in which Israel killed three Islamic Jihad commanders in Gaza and at least 10 civilians including several children, drawing threats of reprisals and warnings of a further escalation in fighting.

The strikes, targeting senior militant commanders Israel said had planned attacks from Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, were the latest in an extended period of Israeli-Palestinian violence stretching back more than a year.

The UAE and Israel normalized ties in 2020 in a US-brokered deal. However, ties between Israel and its neighbors have been shaky since the uncivil comments made by a minister in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition-led government.

At the time, the UAE called for strengthening tolerance and coexistence, and stressed the need to “confront hate speech and violence.”

Jordan’s foreign affairs ministry also condemned the “Israeli aggression” and the earlier Israel Defense Forces raid in Nablus.

A spokesman for the ministry “stressed the need for the international community to act immediately and effectively to stop this aggression, and to provide protection for the Palestinian people…” a statement said.

Egypt issued a similar statement adding that the attacks were in contrary to international law and could result in an increase of violence.

The OIC, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, called the attack a “heinous massacre” and said it was in violation of the international humanitarian law.

Israel, since the signing of the US-sponsored Abraham Accords normalizing ties with UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, has continued to seek expanding the initiative to more Arab states.

Israeli officials have repeatedly stressed that establishing ties with the Saudi Arabia would be the ultimate achievement and would be pivotal to establishing peace in the region.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom has countered stating that any kind of peace accord or deal to normalize ties with Israel would be preconditioned on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

With Reuters

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