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The An­ju­man Sun­nat-ul-Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion (AS­JA) has is­sued a pub­lic state­ment ex­press­ing con­cern over the es­ca­la­tion of hos­til­i­ties in the Mid­dle East and is call­ing for an im­me­di­ate cease­fire and a re­turn to diplo­mat­ic di­a­logue.

In the state­ment, AS­JA said re­cent mil­i­tary ac­tions and re­tal­ia­to­ry strikes have in­creased ten­sions across the re­gion and re­sult­ed in con­se­quences for civil­ians. The or­gan­i­sa­tion cit­ed re­ports of bom­bard­ment af­fect­ing cities, schools, hos­pi­tals and hu­man­i­tar­i­an fa­cil­i­ties and said the sit­u­a­tion re­quires at­ten­tion from the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

AS­JA stat­ed that the pro­tec­tion of civil­ian life is a prin­ci­ple recog­nised in in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­i­tar­i­an law and in the teach­ings of Is­lam. The as­so­ci­a­tion said the sanc­ti­ty of hu­man life must not be dis­re­gard­ed and that the tar­get­ing of civil­ians, in­clud­ing chil­dren, ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions and med­ical fa­cil­i­ties, is a vi­o­la­tion of moral and le­gal oblig­a­tions.