Arab Countries Call for End to Escalation after Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

Israeli security forces at the scene of a shooting near the Old City in Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem, 28 January 2023, a day after deadly attack on synagogue. (EPA)
Israeli security forces at the scene of a shooting near the Old City in Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem, 28 January 2023, a day after deadly attack on synagogue. (EPA)
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Arab Countries Call for End to Escalation after Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

Israeli security forces at the scene of a shooting near the Old City in Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem, 28 January 2023, a day after deadly attack on synagogue. (EPA)
Israeli security forces at the scene of a shooting near the Old City in Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem, 28 January 2023, a day after deadly attack on synagogue. (EPA)

Arab countries condemned on Saturday the attack outside a synagogue in Jerusalem that left seven people dead.

They stressed the need to end the escalation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Official spokesman of Jordan’s foreign ministry Sinan al-Majalyi said the kingdom condemns the attack against civilians at the synagogue and all forms of violence against civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories.

It stresses the need to take “immediate and effective steps that would end the dangerous escalation that has left Palestinian and Israeli casualties,” he added.

He warned that the continuation of the violence would lead to dire consequences.

He urged the need for calm and an end to “all unilateral and provocative measures that only fuel escalation and tensions.”

Furthermore, the spokesman underlined the need to “halt the dangerous escalation that feed despair and extremism.”

Rather, efforts are “needed to restore faith in the peace process through the resumption of serious and effective negotiations aimed at achieving fair and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry condemned Friday's “terrorist attack” on the synagogue, slamming “these criminal acts and underscoring its constant rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism that seek to undermine security and stability and contradict with human values and principles.”

It offered its condolences to the Israeli government and its friendly people and the relatives of the victims.

Egypt expressed its “strong condemnation and rejection of the attack” in East Jerusalem, saying it denounces all operations targeting civilians.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry warned of the “extreme dangers” of the ongoing escalation between the Palestinians and Israelis, urging “maximum restraint” and an end to attacks and provocative measures in order “to avoid sliding into a new empty cycle of violence.”

Such violence will only deepen the political and humanitarian crisis and undermine all efforts to revive the peace process, it warned.

A Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people near a synagogue on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Friday.

Israeli police said that the gunman attack was a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem who appeared to have acted alone in carrying out the attack in an area that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war.

On Saturday, the Israeli ambulance service said two people were hurt in what appeared to be another shooting attack.

The attack underlined fears of an escalation in violence after months of clashes in the West Bank culminating in a raid in Jenin on Thursday that killed at least nine Palestinians.

The outbreak of violence is the first major confrontation since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office last month at the head of a government that includes hardline nationalist parties.

Earlier on Friday, fighters in Gaza fired rockets at Israel, causing no casualties but drawing air strikes by Israeli jets, which struck targets in the blockaded coastal strip controlled by Hamas.



UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)

The United Nations, in collaboration with Palestinian health authorities, began to vaccinate 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with Israel and Hamas agreeing to brief pauses in their 11-month war to allow the campaign to go ahead.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The campaign began on Sunday in areas of central Gaza, and will move to other areas in coming days. Fighting will pause for at least eight hours on three consecutive days.

The WHO said the pauses will likely need to extend to a fourth day and the first round of vaccinations will take just under two weeks.

'Complex’ campaign

"This is the first few hours of the first phase of a massive campaign, one of the most complex in the world," said Juliette Touma, communications director of UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

"Today is test time for parties to the conflict to respect these area pauses to allow the UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach children with these very precious two drops. It’s a race against time," Touma told Reuters.

Israel and Hamas, who have so far failed to conclude a deal that would end the war, said they would cooperate to allow the campaign to succeed.

WHO officials say at least 90% of the children need to be vaccinated twice with four weeks between doses for the campaign to succeed, but it faces huge challenges in Gaza, which has been largely destroyed by the war.

"Children continue to be exposed, it knows no borders, checkpoints or lines of fighting. Every child must be vaccinated in Gaza and Israel to curb the risks of this vicious disease spreading," said Touma.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led fighters in several areas across the Palestinian enclave. Residents said Israeli army troops blew up several houses in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while tanks continued to operate in the northern Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun.

On Sunday, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said.

The war was triggered after Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 stormed into southern Israel killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages by Israeli tallies.

Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Gaza, the enclave's health ministry says.