Al-Azhar university calls for global action to halt Israeli attacks on Gaza, Lebanon

By Ibrahim Khazen

CAIRO (AA) - Egypt's leading Islamic university Al-Azhar on Tuesday called for urgent international action to stop Israel’s “bloodshed of innocent civilians” in Gaza and Lebanon.

In a statement, Al-Azhar strongly condemned the “Zionist terrorist aggression” on southern and eastern Lebanon, which has resulted in hundreds of casualties, including women and children, and forced thousands to flee.

The statement criticized the global and UN silence as “unprecedented and unjustified.”

The Israeli army has launched waves of deadly airstrikes on Lebanon since early Monday, killing nearly 560 victims, including 95 women and 50 children, and injuring 1,835, according to Health Minister Firas Abiad.

Al-Azhar argued: “The Israeli occupation's assault on Lebanon demonstrates its ongoing efforts to turn the Middle East into a battleground, expanding conflicts to other countries and regions.”

The institution also noted that the attack on Lebanon follows Israel's earlier devastation of Gaza, where the military has “reduced the region to rubble and rivers of blood, leaving behind thousands of civilian casualties.”

Al-Azhar concluded by calling on the international community to “act quickly to stop this Zionist aggression and the shedding of innocent blood in Gaza and Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of the Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 41,500 victims, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.

The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of spreading the Gaza conflict regionally.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio

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