Qatar chairs urgent Arab League meeting on Israeli attacks

ISTANBUL

Qatar on Tuesday chaired an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss recent Israeli attacks in occupied East Jerusalem.

According to Egyptian media, the extraordinary virtual meeting took place at the request of Palestine and was chaired by Qatar.

Hossam Zaki, the league’s assistant secretary general, said in a statement that the meeting was raised to the foreign ministers’ level to address the dangers of Israeli efforts to Judaize Jerusalem.

Since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli authorities have harassed Palestinian worshippers and attacked them in the midst of prayers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in addition to threats to vacate dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

Tension spread from East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza vowed to retaliate for Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The Israeli army said late Monday that it had launched a military offensive to respond to claims of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

As of Tuesday evening, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip had killed 28 Palestinians, including nine children, and injured 152 others.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara