Africa Condemns Brutal Israeli Crackdown on Palestinians

The new surge in conflict between Israel and Palestine is being covered widely by African media, with governments from North and Southern Africa condemning the Israeli incursion onto the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem - the third most holy site in Islam - and Israeli attacks on Gaza. The chair of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has strongly condemned Israeli attacks and bombardments in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt's foreign minister has told his Israeli counterpart that Israeli aggression on Palestinian lands should end. Morocco, which recently improved relations with Israel in exchange for support of its occupation of the Western Sahara, has told Hamas, which controls Gaza, that it supports the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state with Al-Quds Asharif (East Jerusalem) as its capital. Tunisia called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, at which Kenya insisted that the agreed status quo on Jerusalem be respected.

Human rights bodies are calling on the Israeli authorities to immediately halt the forced evictions of Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

In the face of widespread support for Palestine in South Africa, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies has urged the government also to condemn Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, while Egyptian religious leaders have strongly condemned the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque and attacks on Palestinian worshippers by Israeli police.

 

South African demonstrators march to Parliament to protest against Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

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