Ahmed Asmar
26 February 2024•Update: 26 February 2024
RABAT, Morocco
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on Monday called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and access to humanitarian aid to the war-battered Palestinian enclave.
“There must be a cease-fire in Gaza and efforts must be made to bring in aid,” Bourita said at a joint press conference in Rabat with his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne.
He also called for halting “all practices that fuel tension” at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to the Moroccan minister, his talks with his French counterpart took up Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip and the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the territory.
The discussions also “dwelt on the need to allow aid to Gaza’s population, not to displace Palestinians and to preserve the Arab-Islamic identity of Jerusalem.”
Sejourne, for his part, said France and Morocco “can play a joint role to achieve security and peace in Gaza.”
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip following an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, killing nearly 29,800 people amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara
