Nick Robertson
Sat, October 7, 2023
The governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran appeared to blame Israel for its escalating conflict with Hamas on Saturday.
The Palestinian militant group launched a mass attack on Israeli forces and settlements, killing at least 250 people in Israel and 232 in Gaza early Saturday, according to Israeli local media and the Palestinian government.
While leaders in the U.S. and Europe quickly denounced the attack and gave support for Israel, the three Middle Eastern nations criticized the country over its treatment of Palestinians.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is closely following the developments of the unprecedented situation between a number of Palestinian factions and the Israeli occupation forces, which has resulted in a high level of violence on several fronts there,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The Kingdom recalls its repeated warnings of the dangers of the explosion of the situation as a result of the continued occupation, and deprivation of the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights, and the repetition of systematic provocations against its sanctities,” the statement continues.
The condemnation comes as both the Israeli and Saudi governments have attempted to normalize relations in recent years, at the encouragement of the U.S.
A senior Iranian government advisor explicitly endorsed Hamas in the conflict, the most direct support for the militant group from any government official globally.
“We congratulate the Palestinian fighters,” advisor Yahya Rahim Safavi said, according to state media via Reuters. “We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.”
Iran state media showed video of parliament members chanting in support of Hamas on Saturday, saying “Death to Israel” and “Palestine is victorious, Israel will be destroyed”.
Iran has funded and supplied Hamas for years as part of its decades-long conflict with Israel.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry also blamed Israel for the violence.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds Israel alone responsible for the current escalation due to this ongoing violations of the rights of the Palestinian people, the latest of which is the repeated raids on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque under of the protection of Israeli police,” the ministry said in a statement.
Violence erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in April, a holy place for the Muslim faith. In multiple days of fighting, Israeli police raided the mosque and arrested dozens of worshipers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the conflict a “war” in a public address early Saturday.
The U.S. has vowed to support Israel, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying the government will ensure the country “has what it needs to defend itself.”
Adam Schrader
Sat, October 7, 2023
Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI
Oct. 7 (UPI) -- African leaders were divided Saturday after war broke out between Israel and Palestine when the Palestinian group Hamas, considered by Israel to be terrorists, sought to assert its right to Palestinian land and push back against a history of Israeli aggression.
Some African leaders have not yet remarked on the conflict but, of those who did, they seemed torn between sympathy for Palestinians facing Israeli occupation and criticism of Hamas "terrorism" for its surprise rocket attack on Saturday.
African countries have long been subject to Western occupation and conflict, which largely showed in their responses to the situation in the Middle East.
Algeria's Foreign Ministry in a statement did not reference the Hamas attack yet condemned "the brutal Israeli attack on Gaza" which claimed the lives of "innocent sons and daughters of the Palestinian people who fell as martyrs under the persistence of the Israeli occupation."
Algeria accused Israel of practices that "violate the most basic humanitarian rules" and called for an international intervention "to protect the Palestinian from the arrogance and crime that the Zionist occupation has made a feature of its occupation of the lands."
"Algeria also renews its conviction that the Zionist settler-occupation has created an enemy of conflict and that ending the misfortunes, scourges and tragedies resulting from this conflict undoubtedly lies in responding to the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people and enabling it to establish its independent state on the 1967 borders with its capital, Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem)."
The Tunisian Presidency said in a statement that it expressed "its full and unconditional stand with the Palestinian people."
"What some media describe as the Gaza enclave is Palestinian land that has been under Zionist occupation for decades, and it is the right of the Palestinians to take it back and to take back all Palestinian land," The Tunisian Presidency said. "Palestine also has the right to establish its independent state and its capital Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem)."
The Tunisian Presidency drew attention to what it called massacres of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and said the world should not forget the "hundreds of thousands" who have been forced to leave their homes and whose lands have been taken from them by Israelis.
"Tunisia also calls on the international community to bear its historical responsibilities to put an end to the gross occupation of all Palestine and to assist the Zionist occupation forces in violating the rights of the Palestinian people in complete defiance of all religious laws and human values," the statement reads.
On the other hand, Félix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, expressed "solidarity" with Israel said the countries remain "united to fight terrorism in all its forms."
William Ruto, the president of Kenya, similarly joined in "solidarity" for Israel in comments on Twitter.
"Kenya strongly maintains that there exists no justification whatsoever for terrorism, which constitutes a serious threat to international peace and security. All acts of terrorism and violent extremism are abhorrent, criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of the perpetrator, or their motivations," Ruto said.
"The international community must mobilize to bring the perpetrators, organizers, financiers, sponsors, supporters and enablers of these reprehensible criminal acts of terrorism to account and speedily bring them to justice."
Meanwhile, Moussa Faki Mahamat -- the chair of the Commission of the African Union -- took a more measured approach but did emphasize that the "main cause" of the conflict is the "denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, particularly that of an independent and sovereign State."
"The chairperson urgently appeals to both parties to put an end to military hostilities and to return, without conditions, to the negotiating table to implement the principle of two States living side by side, to safeguard the interests of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people," the statement reads.
"The chairperson further calls on the international community, and the major world powers in particular, to assume their responsibilities to impose peace and guarantee the rights of the two peoples."
Others that took a more neutral stance include Nigeria, which warned that the "cycle of violence and retaliation" will case "an unending cycle of pain" for the civilian populations of both parties.
Tony Diver
Sat, October 7, 2023
A Palestinian boy wearing army-style fatigues holds a gun as others dance in celebration of the attacks - Bilal Hussein/AP
Migrants in Europe celebrated last night after Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing more than 150 people.
Videos of a migrant camp in Greece showed Palestinians and other asylum seekers cheering in response to the attacks from Gaza.
The footage, published on TikTok, was reportedly taken on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, where the Greek government has set up a “closed” migrant camp surrounded by barbed wire.
Refugees there, many of whom are from Syria and Iraq, reportedly chanted “Allah Akbar” – “God is great”.
Their celebrations were mirrored in many states across the Arab world, where Hamas and Hizbollah supporters gathered in support of the attack.
In Tehran, where the government publicly welcomed Hamas’s military operation, supporters waved Palestinian flags and set off fireworks.
Hizbollah supporters also held a rally in Dahiyeh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, where some waved signs that read: “Oh Quds, we are coming.”
The phrase is used in support of Palestinian forces capturing Muslim holy sites. Others stood on an Israeli flag.
At the Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, one man handed out sweets to supporters, while others displayed two-fingered victory signs reminiscent of Winston Churchill’s wartime gesture.
A video posted on social media purportedly showed similar celebrations taking place in Baghdad, Iraq, where supporters waved flags and sounded their horns in a convoy.
The AFP news agency reported that some Palestinian supporters had taken to the streets in Berlin, prompting police fears of attacks on synagogues in Germany.
Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said police presence “has been immediately stepped up” in response.
In Britain, some supported the attacks on social media.
Rivkah Brown, a journalist for the Left-wing news website Novara, tweeted: “Today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide, as Gazans break out of their open-air prison and Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers’ territory.
“The struggle for freedom is rarely bloodless and we shouldn’t apologise for it.”
Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, said “statements about ‘Israel’s right to self-defence’ will only be interpreted by the most fanatical Israeli government as a green light to commit further massacres against the occupied people of Palestine”.
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