KABUL (Pajhwok): Afghanistan on Sunday called on Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states to consolidate their solidarity on the question of Palestine as a central cause of the Islamic World.
Addressing an extra ordinary ministerial meeting of the organization, Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar said the OIC countries needed to establish effective mechanisms to work with the United Nations, European Union, Arab League, and other stakeholders in the international community to end the conflict.
Israel bombed the home of Hamas’s chief in Gaza early on Sunday and sirens warning of rocket attacks sounded in Israeli border towns shortly after dawn as hostilities stretched into a seventh day with no sign of abating.
At least 153 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, including 42 children, health officials said. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children.
The United Nations Security Council was due to meet later on Sunday to discuss the worst outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in years.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminded all sides “that any indiscriminate targeting of civilian and media structures violates international law and must be avoided at all costs”, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Saturday.
Both Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the enclave, insisted they would continue their cross-border fire after Israel destroyed a 12-storey building in Gaza City that housed the US Associated Press and Qatar-based Al Jazeera media operations.
The Israel military said the al-Jala building was a legitimate military target, containing Hamas military offices, and that it had given advance warnings to civilians to get out of the building.
Atmar said the plight of Palestinian people was one of the most challenging issues facing the Islamic World today and it represented the most iconic case of Muslim suffering.
“Our Palestinian brothers and sisters have endured unspeakable pain and suffering over decades of war and bloodshed caused by border disputes, political rivalries, and interferences. The bloodshed and misery have continued in part due to the lack of pursuing a political solution, broadly supported by the Muslim World and the International Community”.
He believed Muslim Nations could and should mobilize their efforts and exert their leverage to end aggressions and longstanding conflicts in the Islamic countries.
“We stand by the OIC countries in condemning the acts of aggression against Palestine, including, among others, the attack on worshipers of Al-Aqsa Masjid, the first Qibla of Muslims. We consider such acts as violent, unjustified, and a threat to peace and stability in the region and the wider world.”
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