Iraq, Jordan, Egypt condemn Israel for attacking Gaza as Holy Land fends off strikes from Syria, Lebanon

Several Middle Eastern countries and other regional authorities have weighed in on the war between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza, which started when Hamas terrorists, which rule the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of Israeli civilians in border towns and at a music festival on Saturday. It has claimed more than 2,200 lives on both sides in just five days.

Leaders in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and a prominent school in Egypt have expressed support for fighters in Gaza and have condemned Israel, where more than 1,200 people, including 155 soldiers, have died. The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 1,050 of their own people have been killed.

The war is expected to escalate as Israel has amassed forces near its border with Gaza, ahead of a potential ground operation. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has also moved troops to its northern border, which it shares with Syria and Lebanon, after the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli soldiers.

Rocket fire from Gaza continued to fall onto Tel Aviv Wednesday and, as night falls on the region, additional rocket fire is expected.

ISRAEL AT WAR WITH HAMAS AFTER SURPRISE ATTACKS, MORE THAN 1,200 ISRAELIS DEAD

Other leaders, including the Vatican, have called for an end of the warring and the killing of innocent civilians.

Palestinian factions based in the Syrian capital of Damascus have expressed their support to fighters in Gaza, promoting the claim that Hamas is helping liberate their land.

The officials, from factions including the “Palestinian Islamic Jihad” and the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command,” have called for Arab foreign ministers, who are meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, to clearly state their support for the Palestinian people in Gaza.

ISRAEL RESPONDS TO HEZBOLLAH ATTACK FROM LEBANON DEPLOYING ‘TENS OF THOUSANDS’ TO NORTHERN BORDER

An IDF spokesman said Wednesday that Israel received rocket-fire from Lebanon and Syria and was mobilizing “tens of thousands” of troops toward its northern border in response.

Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus did not say whether the rockets were fired by a Syrian militant group, Hezbollah or another faction. IDF returned fire, striking where the rockets were fired, he said.

There have been concerns this third front — in addition to fighting in Gaza and, separately, in Lebanon — heightened tensions and could escalate into a regional war.

The Kata’ib Hezbollah, a prominent Iranian-backed terrorist group in Iraq, released a statement Wednesday threatening to attack American bases if the United States intervenes in the current Israel-Hamas war.

“Our missiles, drones, and special forces are ready to direct qualitative strikes at the American enemy in its bases and disrupt its interests if it intervenes in this battle,” Ahmad al-Hamidawi, head of the Kataib Hezbollah militia also known as “Abu Hussein,” said in a statement.

US AMMO ARRIVES IN ISRAEL AHEAD OF EXPECTED GROUND OPERATION IN GAZA

Al-Hamidawi also threatened to launch missiles directly at Israeli targets and has called on Iraqis to demonstrate their support for the Hamas military campaign. They are also collecting money for to support Hamas.

Iraq does not share a border with Israel as it is separated by Jordan and Syria.

King Abdullah II of Jordan has called for peace between Gaza and Israel but said Israeli-Palestinian relations could never be stable without a “two-state solution.”

Such a proposal includes Palestinian people getting their own land and country, which Israel opposes.

AT LEAST 40 BABIES, SOME BEHEADED, FOUND BY ISRAEL SOLDIERS IN HAMAS-ATTACKED VILLAGE

“There will be no security, no peace, no stability without just and total peace that comes through a two-state solution,” King Abdullah II told the Jordanian parliament Wednesday, calling for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The King of Jordan has also mobilized medical and humanitarian aid teams to the blockaded Gaza Strip through Egypt.

Al-Azhar al-Sharif, the Sunni world’s foremost seat of religious learning, released a strongly-worded statement Wednesday alleging Israel has committed “genocide and war crimes” against civilian Palestinians in Gaza.

The Cairo-based religious institution called for Arab and Islamic countries to take “a serious and unified position against the West’s inhuman rally.” It also condemned its “inhuman siege” of Gaza and claimed Israel’s attacks were killing “innocent Palestinian civilians,” which Israel has denied.

The statement called for an investigation into the alleged actions.

ISRAEL LAUNCHES MASSIVE AIRSTRIKES ON DOWNTOWN GAZA CITY, NETANYAHU SAYS: ‘WE HAVE ONLY STARTED’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi warned about “grave security and humanitarian repercussions” in a statement Wednesday amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

He said his government, which has mediated previous cease-fires between Israel and Palestinian militants, is seeking to “contain the situation,” according to the Egyptian leader’s office.

Egypt has closed the Rafah border, which it shares with Israel and the Gaza Strip, according to an Egyptian security official.

On Wednesday, Pope Francis called for the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.

On Saturday, Hamas fighters carried out the most serious assault on Israel in its 75-year history. The attack, which took place on a religious holiday in Israel, included Hamas terrorists killing 260 Israelis at a music festival and the taking of more than 130 hostages. These hostages include Americans and European nationals.

Pope Francis said he is praying for those who saw “a day of celebration transformed into a day of mourning.” He also said that he is following events in Israel and the occupied territories with “pain and apprehension,” with “many dead and injured.’’

The pope clarified that “whoever is attacked has the right to defend himself” but said he was “very worried about the total siege under which the Palestinians in Gaza are living, where there are also many innocent victims.”

Thousands of people on both sides, Israel and Gaza, have been wounded. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Thousands of protesters rally across Iraq for a 2nd day to condemn the burning of a Quran in Sweden

Thousands of followers of a firebrand Iraqi Shiite cleric rallied in major cities in Iraq on Friday, condemning the burning of a Quran during a protest in Sweden earlier this week. Some of the demonstrators called for expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq.

At the rallies in the capital of Baghdad and the southern city of Basra, followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric with a large grassroots following and political leader, burned Swedish flags and rainbow LGBTQ+ pride flags and chanted “”Yes, yes to Islam” and “No, no to the devil.”

Addressing the crowds in a speech in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, Friday prayers preacher Sayyid Sattar Batat, called on Iraqi authorities to “if necessary, expel the Swedish ambassador and cut all diplomatic relations with them.”

FRANCE WILL DEPLOY 40,000 OFFICERS TO CRACK DOWN ON RIOTS AFTER DEADLY POLICE SHOOTING

The protests came a day after hundreds of protesters briefly stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad.

On Wednesday, a man who identified himself in Swedish media as a refugee from Iraq burned a Quran outside a mosque in central Stockholm.

An Iraqi security official said the man was an Iraqi Christian who had previously fought in a Christian unit of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of mostly Shiite militias that were incorporated into the country’s armed forces in 2016.

Swedish police had authorized the protest, citing freedom of speech, after a previous decision to ban a similar protest was overturned by a Swedish court.

The act, coming during the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, drew widespread condemnation in the Muslim world. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday suggested that the incident would pose another obstacle to Sweden’s bid for NATO membership.

Iraqi officials have called on Sweden to extradite the man who had burned the Quran for prosecution in Iraq.