Algeria suspends all major art festivals in solidarity with war-torn Gaza

By Abbas Mimouni

ALGIERS, Algeria (AA) - Algeria's Culture Ministry announced Friday that it is suspending all major art festivals this summer in solidarity with the Gaza Strip which has been under a devastating Israeli onslaught since October.

A statement by Culture Minister Soraya Mouloudji said the ministry will instead intensify activities that express the country's solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Mouloudji said the decision comes from Algeria's supportive fixed position toward "the Palestinian cause and its brave legitimate struggle against Zionist brutality."

The ministry organizes several major art festivals every summer, including the Timgad International Cultural Festival in Batna in eastern Algeria and the Kazif International Festival in the capital of Algiers.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.

More than 38,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 88,300 injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar