JOHANNESBURG/ JERUSALEM, 8 March 2008 — The council of world leaders launched by former President Nelson Mandela is sending a three-person team to the troubled Middle East.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter and former Irish President Mary Robinson, will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia next month to “help people understand the urgency of peace,” the organization known as The Elders said in a statement yesterday.

Launched last year to celebrate Mandela’s 89th birthday, the group of 12 world leaders is dedicated to fostering peace and resolving global crises.

Israel on Alert

Israeli security forces were put on high alert yesterday, following the shooting attack on Thursday night that left eight Israelis dead in a religious school in West Jerusalem.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered Israel forces to enforce a closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Army said the closure would continue until security forces re-evaluate the situation.

All Muslims under the age of 45 were barred from attending Friday prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque due to security concerns, police said. Only those above 45 with Israeli ID cards and women were allowed into the compound.

Police arrested more than 10 relatives and friends of the man suspected of spraying automatic gunfire at the students before being gunned down by security forces late on Thursday.

The army sealed off the occupied West Bank and Israel police said they were on a “general state of alert.” Israel’s main ally, US President George W. Bush, led a global chorus of outrage, but the UN Security Council failed to agree on a condemnation after an emergency meeting amid Libyan opposition.

The 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference yesterday condemned the killing of the Israeli teenagers, saying it abhorred “violence and terror.” The OIC expressed “grave concern over, and condemned the killings of students in West Jerusalem,” a statement released here said. OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu also “reiterated the position of the OIC against any act of violence and terror anywhere in the world,” the statement added.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. A Hamas radio presenter said the group’s military wing had “promised a jolting response” to this week’s violence in the Gaza Strip in which more than 120 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military, many of them in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. The radio referred to the Jerusalem attack as “the fruits of what happened in Jebaliya” and called on believers to “celebrate this victory against the brutal enemy.” The group hailed the attack as “heroic” but also indicated it would consider a truce if Israel meets its conditions.

“Any truce must be reciprocal and simultaneous and carry guarantees for an end to the Israeli aggression and blockade on Gaza,” Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman, told AFP.

In New York, the Security Council failed to agree on a condemnation. “Most members wanted to condemn but Libya blocked it,” Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said after the emergency session late Thursday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the strike.

“We condemn all attacks against civilians, be they Palestinians or Israelis,” his office quoted him as saying in a statement.

But Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev insisted that “words in themselves are not enough” and that the Palestinian government must “do what needs to be done to fight terror.” A senior government official stressed nonetheless that peace talks would continue. “Israel will maintain its policy of talking to moderates ... and at the same time fight Hamas,” the official told AFP.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who strongly denounced the attack, told Abbas in a phone call yesterday that she would do everything in her power to restore calm as soon as possible, said Abbas’ aide Nabil Abu Rudeina.

— With input from agencies