Qatari Foreign Minister, US State Secretary discuss armed conflict around Gaza Strip
May 17, 2021
Doha [Qatar], May 17 (ANI/Sputnik): Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani has held phone talks with US State Secretary Antony Blinken to discuss the recent armed hostilities around the Gaza Strip, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday.
"HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani received today a phone call from HE Secretary of State of the United States of America Antony Blinken. During the call, they discussed the recent Israeli attacks on worshipers at the Al Aqsa Compound and the attack on the besieged Gaza Strip," the ministry said in a statement.
The Qatari minister pointed to the need for the international community to take urgent action to stop "the repeated brutal Israeli attacks against civilians in Gaza and the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque," the ministry added.
"HE the Foreign Minister reaffirmed the firm position of the State of Qatar on the justice of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people, including practicing their religious rights and the establishment of their independent state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital," the statement read.
Tensions flared up on the border of Israel and the Palestinian enclave in the evening of May 10. As of Sunday evening, some 3,100 rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, with about 1,210 of them intercepted, while the Israeli military targeted hundreds of rockets at what it claimed were Hamas infrastructure buildings across the border.
Since the start of the hostilities, 181 Palestinians, including 52 children, were killed and over 1,200 others were injured, while Israel reported 10 people killed and 50 others seriously injured. (ANI/Sputnik)
