United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the \u201cheinous deadly attack\u201d on Sunday against Jewish families gathered in Sydney, Australia, to celebrate Hanukkah, a religious festival of lights.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, the UN chief said he was \u201chorrified\u201d by the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart is with the Jewish community worldwide on this first day of Hannukah, a festival celebrating the miracle of peace and light vanquishing darkness,\u201dGuterres wrote.<\/p>\n
At least 15 people were killed when two gunmen opened fire on the Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, which authorities have called a terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
Two of the victims were police officers, according to media reports. One of the gunmen was killed and the other was taken into custody.<\/p>\n
The Secretary-General expressed solidarity with the people and Government of Australia, and with the Jewish community in the country and worldwide, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a statement issued Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
He \u201cunequivocally condemns antisemitism in all its forms and reiterates that attacks on religious communities and peaceful celebrations strike at the core values of tolerance, coexistence and human dignity,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The Secretary-General was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, where he addressed the opening of the 11th World Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC).<\/p>\n
The Alliance was established 20 years ago to promote respect and understanding between cultures and religions.<\/p>\n
In a post on social media, UNAOC High Representative Miguel A\u00b4ngel Moratinos said he was \u201cappalled\u201d at the attack and added his voice to the condemnation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,\u201d he said in a tweet.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the American Pakistani Public Affairs Committee (APPAC), a prominent Pakistani political group, also condemned the terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch acts of hatred and intimidation are morally reprehensible and absolutely unacceptable, regardless of geography or political context,\u201d AAPAC said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cViolence against civilians\u2014especially those targeted for their faith\u2014has no justification and must be confronted with zero tolerance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call for swift accountability, justice, and the strongest possible response against those responsible. Silence or hesitation in the face of antisemitism and religious hatred only emboldens extremism,\u201d APPAC added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the \u201cheinous deadly attack\u201d on Sunday against Jewish families gathered in Sydney, Australia, to celebrate Hanukkah, a religious festival of lights. In a social media post, the UN chief said he was \u201chorrified\u201d by the incident. \u201cMy heart is with the Jewish community worldwide on this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":64167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91051,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91039\/revisions\/91051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}