Israeli ‘recklessness threatens regional explosion,’ Arab League chief warns

Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of their top commander Fuad Shuku during his funeral procession in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)
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  • Targeted killings will not weaken Palestinians’ determination, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif says

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has accused Israel of reckless behavior that risks a dangerous escalation in the region. 

Israel “is practicing a reckless policy without foreseeing the dire consequences that could affect the region as a result of its actions,” he said.

His remarks follow the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah figures Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr in Israeli strikes this week.

The Arab League chief said that “assassinations are acts that violate international law, and carrying them out reveals a great disregard for international norms and an affront to the rules that regulate relations between states.”

Aboul Gheit said that “the international community must exert the necessary pressure on Israel to prevent an all-out regional explosion caused by the reckless policies of its leaders.”

Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Sunni Islam’s oldest and foremost seat of learning, also condemned the killing of Haniyeh.

The Hamas leader spent ‎his life defending his land, and the cause of the Arabs and ‎Muslims, the cause of free Palestine, it said.

Al-Azhar said such ‎assassinations will not undermine the determination of the ‎struggling Palestinian people who have made, and continue ‎to make, great sacrifices to restore their rights to establish the ‎independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.‎

It offered condolences and sympathy to the Palestinian people and the Haniyeh family.