Originally posted to The Middle East Monitor website, 11 May 2021
A number of correspondences have been made between states in the region following Israel’s harsh crackdown on Palestinian protestors and its raids into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling upon Tel Aviv to respect the Palestinians’ rights and respect international law.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a call to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, yesterday to discuss a number of issues relating to strengthening cooperation and bilateral relations.
A key topic in their call, too, were the developments in the Palestinian territories and occupied East Jerusalem over the past week, in which Israeli forces have been attacking worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and yesterday killed at least 20 Palestinians – including 9 children – in the Gaza Strip.
The two leaders condemned Israel’s actions, calling on it to cease its attacks on unarmed civilians and abide by international law.
On the same day, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry made a call to his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, during which they rejected and condemned actions “undermining legitimate Palestinian rights” and emphasised Israel’s responsibility to protect those rights.
According to the official spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Ahmed Hafez, the ministers “discussed the rapid developments in the Palestinian arena, and the recent Israeli incursions into the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Yesterday marked the culmination of weeks of tensions between Palestinians in Jerusalem and Israeli police, who helped Jewish settlers evict Palestinian families from their ancestral homes in East Jerusalem’s historic Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Those forced evictions were also directly acknowledged by the city’s deputy mayors as being a strategy to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem and preserve its Jewish identity.
The situation is set to further deteriorate, with the Israeli military announcing that it is ready for a full-fledged assault on the Gaza Strip and potentially a ground offensive.
Link to the original post: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210511-turkey-qatar-saudi-arabia-egypt-condemn-israel-crackdown-on-palestinians/
