World Islamic Health Union seeks help for Palestine

ANKARA

The World Islamic Health Union (WIHU) on Saturday called for immediate efforts to help Palestinians facing brutal attacks by Israeli forces.

“The Islamic world should mobilize all its means for our Palestinian brothers to heal the wounds of the attacks, and basic necessities, especially medical aid, should be delivered to Palestine immediately,” the group said in a statement.

The WIHU said Jerusalem holds special significance for Muslims and they “must work hard to eliminate the attacks against our first qibla and to bring peace and tranquility to Jerusalem.”

“In the eyes of Islamic countries, an Islamic Peace Force should be established to protect Jerusalem,” read the statement.

The WIHU pointed out that “people of different cultures lived in peace and tranquility under Ottoman rule for 400 years” in Jerusalem.

The process of oppression in Jerusalem began with the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which paved the way for a Jewish state in Palestine, and with the establishment of Zionist Israel in 1948, the statement said.

Palestinians were forced to migrate from the land where they lived for centuries due to Israeli oppression and became refugees, it added.

“One day we will pray together in a free Jerusalem. When the Islamic ummah, 2 billion people, is one and together, there is no problem that they cannot solve and no persecution they cannot eliminate,” the WIHU said.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in air strikes since Monday, killing at least 139 people, including 39 children and 22 women, and injuring 950 more people.

The air raids on Gaza were preceded by days of tensions and Israeli aggression in occupied East Jerusalem, where hundreds of Palestinians were assaulted by Israeli forces and settlers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980 – a move that has never been recognized by the international community.