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Bahrain 'halts' economic relations with Israel over war on Gaza: Parliament

Thursday, 02 November 2023 10:27 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 02 November 2023 10:27 PM ]

Image taken on October 29, 2023, shows a black cloud of smoke ascending from the Gaza Strip amid the Israeli regime's ongoing war on the coastal sliver. (Photo by AFP)

Bahrain's lower house of parliament has said the country has halted its economic relations with the Israeli regime over Tel Aviv's ongoing war against the Gaza Strip that has claimed thousands of Palestinians.

"Economic relations with Israel have been halted," said a statement from the Council of Representatives on Thursday.

The chamber also "confirms that the Israeli ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain has left Bahrain, and the Kingdom of Bahrain decided to return the Bahraini ambassador from Israel to the country," it noted.

The move was "in support of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people," the statement read.

Abdulnabi Salman, the Bahraini legislature's first deputy speaker, confirmed the decision to AFP, saying the "ongoing conflict in Gaza cannot tolerate silence."

Bahrain's National Communication Center, the government's media arm, said the "priority at this stage must be focused on protecting the lives of civilians" in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The brutal war that the Israeli regime has been waging against the coastal sliver since October 7, has so far claimed the lives of nearly 9,061 people, including 3,700 children and more than 2,300 women.

Hamas: Israel committing 'massacre of century' in Gaza

Hamas says the Israeli regime is engaged in committing "massacre of the century" in the Gaza Strip.

The regime launched the war after Gaza's resistance groups conducted Operation al-Aqsa Storm, their biggest operation against the occupying entity in years.

Bahrain and the regime established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of United States-brokered Abraham Accords.

Back in 2021, Bahrain’s main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, denounced Manama’s normalization of relations with Israel as “a crime,” emphasizing that the ruling Al Khalifah regime’s policies did not conform to the will of the Bahraini nation.