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.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.