LONDON: A year after the war in Gaza started, a British imam has described relations between Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK as “fragile and fractured.”

Israel’s military incursion into Gaza and Lebanon is an “apocalypse,” Qari Asim, the chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, told PA Media on Monday.

There has been a “lack of common language to describe the massive onslaught of death and destruction” in Gaza that followed Hamas’ “brutal attack” on Oct. 7 last year, the leading imam said.

He said that although there are “different perspectives” of the conflict, he has had “a number of open and frank conversations” with Jewish faith leaders “about the pain, trauma and heartbreak that British Muslims feel when they hear on their screens the cries of young children.”

Such dialogue has also involved listening to the perspectives of the Jewish community on “the pain and suffering that they’re experiencing because of the horrific attacks on October 7 last year.”

He said: “The relations between Jewish and Muslim communities are currently fragile and fractured.”

However, he also paid tribute to those who have come together to keep communication open between the two communities.

“Despite the extremely aching and traumatic last 12 months, I see that brave members of our respective communities have continued some form of dialogue.

“These encounters and activities show that no matter how fractured interfaith relationships between the two communities may seem in this country, people of all faiths and beliefs stand together when they see a stain on our national moral conscience,” Asim said.

Mourners and leaders around the world on Monday voiced horror and a desire for peace at tearful memorials remembering the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked a year of devastating war in Gaza.

People from Sydney to Rome and Warsaw to Washington grieved for those killed and urged freedom for those taken hostage by Hamas one year ago, while rallies also called for peace in the Palestinian territories.

LONDON: Nearly 30 journalist societies, mostly based in France, have renewed their call for unrestricted media access to Gaza while urging Israeli authorities to guarantee the safety of media workers “trapped” in the enclave reporting under “unprecedented circumstances.”

In a column published on Tuesday in Le Monde, the group, including journalist associations from France24, Arte, and Reporters Without Borders, pressed for Israel to allow international media into Gaza.

“Already condemned a year ago, this situation is unprecedented. As in every armed conflict, it is up to newsrooms to weigh up the risks of sending their journalists to war zones, as they do throughout the world,” read the article which was written in French, Hebrew and Arabic.

The group argued that preventing journalists from operating freely has allowed disinformation to spread unchecked, with falsehoods becoming “weapons of war used by all sides.”

Theodora column continued: “The right to inform and be informed is the cornerstone of our democracies. It is a fundamental freedom, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

It added: “We therefore call on the Israeli authorities to protect the safety of the journalists currently trying to work in Gaza, and to open this territory to the international press so that it can do its job: Inform without hindrance and bear witness to the progress of this war, one of the most deadly and violent of the early 21st century.”

Despite international pressure, Israel has barred foreign media from entering Gaza, forcing outlets to rely on stained local journalists operating in a war zone.

German media outlets made a similar request to Israel in mid-September, calling the exclusion of international media “unprecedented in recent history.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded the deaths of at least 128 media workers, almost all Palestinian, since the start of the conflict, marking it as the deadliest war for journalists since records began in 1992.