UAE and eight other Arab countries condemn ‘flagrant violations’ targeting civilians in Gaza
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DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt and Morocco on Thursday condemned attacks on civilians and “flagrant violations of international law” in Gaza, which has been under intense Israeli bombardment.
Arab foreign ministers said Israel’s right to self-defense after the devastating Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants did not justify neglecting Palestinian rights.
Palestinians in Gaza said Israeli airstrikes had hit the territory again overnight and people living in central Gaza, near the Bureij refugee camp and east of the village of Qarara, reported intense shelling with tanks all night.
“We emphasize that the right to self-defense…does not justify flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law, or the deliberate neglect of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” the foreign ministers said in their statement.
They also condemned forced displacement and collective punishment in Gaza and emphasized that “the absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to repeated acts of violence and suffering for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region.”
The ministers emphasized the need for a two-state solution, ensuring the establishment of “an independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian State on the lines prior to June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
Both the West Bank and East Jerusalem were captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
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