Bahrain Condemns Hamas for Targeting Civilians in Mass Killings, Abductions in Israel

The Sunni Islamic government of Bahrain issued a statement on Monday condemning the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas for the widespread slaughter and abduction of potentially thousands of people in Israel.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded an end to the “ongoing fighting” – which began on Saturday with Hamas firing thousands of rockets into Israel and storming residential communities door-to-door – and specifically condemned the reports of jihadist assailants abducting an unknown number of men, women, and children and taking them into Palestinian-controlled areas.

Bahrain is the second Arab Muslim country to condemn the Hamas slaughters this weekend after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) did so. Both nations signed a peace agreement with Israel in 2020 known as the Abraham Accords, which began a path to normalization including regular diplomatic engagements, the expansion of economic cooperation, and cultural exchanges. Bahrain taking the risk of moving towards peace with Israel was of particular note because of its ongoing struggle to suppress Iran-backed jihadist terror groups in the country and to ameliorate tensions between the Sunni regime and the sizable Shia Muslim population.

In contrast to the Bahraini Foreign Ministry, Saraya Wa’ad Allah, one of the largest Iran-backed terror groups in the country issued a statement celebrating the killing, rape, and desecration of corpses by Hamas as a fulfillment of “divine promise.”

“The attacks launched by Hamas constitute a dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of civilians,” the Bahraini government emphasized. “The Ministry also expressed the Kingdom of Bahrain’s denunciation of what was reported in some reports of the kidnapping of civilians from their homes as hostages, calling for an end to the escalation and the avoidance of violence that threatens regional security and stability and portends dire consequences for the region.”

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for the international community to intervene and fulfill its responsibilities to stop the fighting and provide full protection for civilians who should not be the target of conflict,” the statement continued, “under international humanitarian law, and to advance efforts to achieve peace, stability and security for all the peoples of the region.”

Bahrain also used the occasion to demand a “two-state solution,” meaning the creation of a Palestinian state carved out of Israel – a key demand of the Hamas terrorist group.

The statement out of Manama was slightly less direct in condemning Hamas than that from Abu Dhabi, which branded the Hamas assault a display of “nihilistic destruction.”

“Attacks by Hamas against Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza strip, including the firing of thousands of rockets at population centers, are a serious and grave escalation,” the Emirati government asserted.

“The UAE reaffirmed that the international community must remain resolute in the face of these violent attempts to derail ongoing regional efforts aimed at dialogue, cooperation, and co-existence,” the Emirati Foreign Ministry stated, “and must not allow nihilistic destruction to overtake a region whose people have already suffered enough war and trauma.”

The genocidal Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has received support in the region for its onslaught – which has killed at least 800 people and continues with the ongoing abduction of civilians – from regional jihadist groups and the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. Radical Muslims around the world, from Tehran to Times Square, have openly cheered in the streets in the face of the ongoing mass killings.

In Bahrain, the jihadist Iran-backed militia Saraya Wa’ad Allah issued a statement complimenting Hamas for having “revealed the internal defeat of the house of spiders, as Allah has fulfilled his promise.”

“What the Israeli occupation is experiencing is the inevitable divine promise that this great act of resistance will overshadow this bastard entity and God will decree their evacuation sooner than later,” the group asserted, pressuring the Bahraini royal family to stop its progress in its relationship with Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders, Hamas in particular, strongly condemned the peacemaking Abraham Accords at the time of their signing at the White House.

“We have to fight the virus of normalization and block all its paths before it succeeds to prevent it from spreading,” Hamas official Maher al-Holy declared in 2020.

The Bahraini government has largely disregarded the outcry from Palestinian Islamic groups. In December 2020, the country sent a delegation to Israel’s Western Wall for a Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony, a historic first. In September 2021, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid became the first Israeli official to meet with Bahraini King Hamid bin Issa al Khalifa. President Isaac Herzog became the first Israeli head of state to meet the king and visit Bahrain in December 2022.

More recently, in September, Israeli Foreign Ministry Eli Cohen made his first visit to Bahrain, meeting the country’s top diplomat and inaugurating a new Israeli embassy in Manama.

“The foreign minister and I agreed that we should work together to increase the number of direct flights, the tourism, the trade volume, the investment,” Cohen said.

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