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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Arab Countries Call for End to Escalation after Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

Israeli security forces at the scene of a shooting near the Old City in Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem, 28 January 2023, a day after deadly attack on synagogue. (EPA)

Arab countries condemned on Saturday the attack outside a synagogue in Jerusalem that left seven people dead.

They stressed the need to end the escalation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Official spokesman of Jordan’s foreign ministry Sinan al-Majalyi said the kingdom condemns the attack against civilians at the synagogue and all forms of violence against civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories.

It stresses the need to take “immediate and effective steps that would end the dangerous escalation that has left Palestinian and Israeli casualties,” he added.

He warned that the continuation of the violence would lead to dire consequences.

He urged the need for calm and an end to “all unilateral and provocative measures that only fuel escalation and tensions.”

Furthermore, the spokesman underlined the need to “halt the dangerous escalation that feed despair and extremism.”

Rather, efforts are “needed to restore faith in the peace process through the resumption of serious and effective negotiations aimed at achieving fair and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry condemned Friday's “terrorist attack” on the synagogue, slamming “these criminal acts and underscoring its constant rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism that seek to undermine security and stability and contradict with human values and principles.”

It offered its condolences to the Israeli government and its friendly people and the relatives of the victims.

Egypt expressed its “strong condemnation and rejection of the attack” in East Jerusalem, saying it denounces all operations targeting civilians.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry warned of the “extreme dangers” of the ongoing escalation between the Palestinians and Israelis, urging “maximum restraint” and an end to attacks and provocative measures in order “to avoid sliding into a new empty cycle of violence.”

Such violence will only deepen the political and humanitarian crisis and undermine all efforts to revive the peace process, it warned.

A Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people near a synagogue on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Friday.

Israeli police said that the gunman attack was a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem who appeared to have acted alone in carrying out the attack in an area that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war.

On Saturday, the Israeli ambulance service said two people were hurt in what appeared to be another shooting attack.

The attack underlined fears of an escalation in violence after months of clashes in the West Bank culminating in a raid in Jenin on Thursday that killed at least nine Palestinians.

The outbreak of violence is the first major confrontation since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office last month at the head of a government that includes hardline nationalist parties.

Earlier on Friday, fighters in Gaza fired rockets at Israel, causing no casualties but drawing air strikes by Israeli jets, which struck targets in the blockaded coastal strip controlled by Hamas.

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