Hours after the Palestinian freedom group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in decades, a statement attributed to the Afghanistan’s Taliban movement started circulating on social media.
According to this statement, the Taliban asked the Muslim countries neighbouring Palestine and Israel to give them a safe passage to reach Jerusalem so that they could fight the Israeli Army.
The statement has been circulating in Urdu and English languages and even Israeli newspapers carried this statement prominently.
Israel National News reported, “Sunday 3:50 AM: The Taliban terror organization, which controls Afghanistan, has reportedly asked its neighbors for passage so it could join Hamas in its attack on Israel.”
However, a fact-check shows the statement attributed to the Taliban was fake.
Reacting to the fresh wave of violence in Palestine, Afghanistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement saying, “Afghanistan has been closely monitoring the recent events in the Gaza Strip and considers such events to be the result of the violation of the rights of the oppressed Palestinian nation by the Israeli Zionists and repeated insults and disrespect to Muslim holy places.”
The statement reads, “Any kind of defence and resistance of the Palestinian people for the freedom of their land and holy places is their legitimate right.”
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan declares its support for the legitimate, historical and legal right of the Palestinian people to have a permanent country in the historical Palestinian land and calls upon the Islamic countries, The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the international community and especially the influential countries in the region to stop the violence of the Israeli occupying forces.”
And there was nothing in the official statement that was reported earlier in the fake statement.
Palestine calls for emergency meeting of Arab League Council
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates directed its permanent delegation to the Arab League to request an emergency meeting of the Arab League Council at the ministerial level.
Pakistan reiterated its longstanding position on the Palestine-Israel conflict and extended support for Palestine’s statehood with East Jerusalem as its capital.
President Arif Alvi said that progress towards peace cannot materialise without condemnation of usurpation and brutalisation of Palestinian rights and people by Israel.