LUANDA/OTTAWA/CANBERRA/TEHRAN, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- In a parliamentary address on Monday, Angolan President Joao Lourenco called for preventing a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and appealed for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During his State of the Nation Address at the National Assembly of Angola, marking the opening of the new parliamentary year, Lourenco expressed concern about the escalating tension in the Middle East.
"While acknowledging Israel's right to defend itself and protect the lives of its citizens, the truth is that the Palestinian people also possess the same right. They have been living for decades in a continuous occupation and annexation of parts of their territory - a situation deemed unacceptable in the 21st century," he said.
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Canada has seen a rise in hate crimes targeting Jewish people since the start of the bloody Hamas-Israel conflict, Canadian media reports said on Monday.
Incidents of hate crimes have been recorded in several parts of the country, including Toronto, the capital Ottawa and the westernmost province of British Columbia, the National Post newspaper reported.
In light of the ongoing situation, the Canadian government on Monday appointed senior diplomat Deborah Lyons as the country's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism.
Lyons told local media she is deeply concerned about a rise in hate speech targeting Jewish people, particularly on university campuses and social media.
Issuing a press statement on Oct. 14, the Ontario Provincial Police said it was aware of "global online threats of violence regarding the situation in the Middle East."
"We have increased police patrols and presence in areas of cultural and religious significance and will maintain open lines of communication with community leaders," it said. "We want to assure the people of Ontario that we continue to focus on public safety."
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The Royal Australian Air Force has joined the effort to repatriate Australian citizens stranded in Israel.
Richard Marles, the minister for defense and deputy prime minister, Penny Wong, foreign affairs minister, and Bill Shorten, the minister for government services, on Monday evening announced that two Air Force aircraft joined a government-supported charter to fly 255 Australian citizens from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport to Dubai on Monday.
The two heavy means of transport, a KC-30At and C-17A Globemaster III, were the first aircraft deployed by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to join the operation to repatriate Australian citizens in Israel who wish to leave the area.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, more than 1,200 Australians registered to depart the area have left, more than 400 of whom were on board government-supported flights.
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday highlighted the need to end Israeli attacks against Gaza in separate phone calls with his Russian and Turkish counterparts, according to statements from the Iranian president's office.
Speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Raisi blamed Israel's intensification and continuation of military operations in Gaza, which were "supported by Western states, especially the United States."
"The major disaster occurring in the region is an outcome of the policies of the U.S. and Israel's other Western supporters, which are doomed to failure," Raisi stressed.
For his part, Putin said the large-scale Israeli attacks against a densely-populated region, where more than 2 million defenseless people live, "are in no way justifiable and must be immediately stopped."
He warned that carrying out ground operations in Gaza would have heavy human and military costs. He added that the U.S. sought to resolve the Palestinian issue alone but failed. ■
