Source: Al-Azhar grand imam withdrew call to save Gaza at foreign minister’s request

Al-Azhar withdrew a Tuesday night statement in which it had called on “active and influential forces” to stop Israel’s genocidal war and mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. The following afternoon, it justified the withdrawal in a new statement from its media office in which it said it “realized” the statement “could affect the ongoing negotiations.”

According to Al-Azhar, the decision to withdraw, which it called brave and responsible, came so the statement “would not be used as an excuse to retreat from the negotiations or to bargain in them.”

A source close to Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that Tayeb withdrew the statement after Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Atty urged him to do so, saying it may obstruct negotiations that are close to reaching a solution that would allow humanitarian aid to enter the besieged Gaza Strip.

Palestinians in Gaza have been under an almost total siege since March.

The recalled statement came amid increasing global calls to end the war and stop Israel’s mass starvation of Palestinians, as the number of people dying from starvation and malnutrition rises. Ten people died from malnutrition-related causes in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Muneer al-Barsh. 

Tuesday’s statement called on “active and influential forces to do their utmost” to compel Israel to halt its systematic killing of Palestinians, “immediately allow the entry of humanitarian and relief aid, and open all avenues for treating the sick and injured whose health conditions have deteriorated as a result of the Occupation's targeting of hospitals and medical facilities, in flagrant violation of all divine laws and international conventions.” 

It was removed from its pages hours later without comment until the following afternoon.

The source explained that Tayeb made the decision to remove the statement in case doing so could expedite the entry of “one bag of flour” to the people of Gaza in light of Abdel Atty’s warnings that the ongoing negotiations would be “ruined” by its publication, which came on behalf of the Egyptian and Qatari mediator according to the source.

Last week, Doha was still hosting the first phase of a new round of negotiations that aims to reach an “agreement of principles” that would serve as a basis for indirect ceasefire talks. At the same time, the United States, Qatar and Egypt presented both Palestinian factions and Israelis with an updated proposal for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange.

But negotiations have stalled over Hamas’s demands for a guarantee that Israel will not resume its war, and over the extent to which the Israeli military will withdraw from areas its forces are occupying in the Gaza Strip. 

Even amid talks toward a negotiated ceasefire, Israel has established newly fortified areas while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared plans to concentrate most of the Palestinians in Gaza to a confined area, which he dubbed a “humanitarian city,” near the border with Egypt and resume the war once the truce supported by the US and the mediators ends.

The deleted statement said that “thousands of children and innocent people are being killed in cold blood, while the ones who survive are facing death from hunger, thirst, dehydration, the depletion of medicine and the failure of medical centers to save them from certain death.” 

It also declared Al-Azhar’s “disavowal before God of this suspicious global silence, the shameful international failure to support these defenseless people, and of any call to displace the people of Gaza from their land, and anyone who accepts or responds to these calls.”

The statement, covered widely by domestic press before its withdrawal, which led to some coverage being taken down, was not the first from Tayeb concerning the genocidal war on Gaza. Since October 7, he has expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza, rejection of their displacement, criticism of the Israeli occupation and support for the Palestinian resistance on multiple occasions. 

This rhetoric does not always align with the official government discourse. Abdel Atty had contacted Tayeb on a previous occasion to change the wording of one of these statements, in parallel with a similar request which came at the time from a ‘sovereign body,’ according to the source.

Al-Azhar's deleted statement comes as humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip deteriorate, amid an increase in the number of deaths from hunger and malnutrition as a result of Israel's starvation policies. Israel has been preventing the entry of humanitarian aid for months, blocking the regular aid entry and distribution mechanisms, while Israeli forces open fire on a daily basis at the people who approach the aid distribution centers designated by Israel. 

Thirty Western countries called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza on Monday, saying that the suffering of Palestinians has “reached new depths.” The joint statement condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” noting that “over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.” The group also condemned Netanyahu’s plans to displace the population to a “humanitarian city” as a violation of international humanitarian law.

For its part, Hamas pointed yesterday to “the extent of blackmail practiced by the Occupation through its committing of massacres in a desperate attempt to extract positions it has been unable to impose at the negotiating table.”