Egypt on Monday has blasted media for “twisting” its foreign minister’s “words” when he allegedly said that the killing of Palestinian children by Israel was “not terrorism.”

 

Local and international media reported that Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry dismissed the killing of Palestinian children by Israel to a group of high-school students as “not terrorism” on Sunday during a question-and-answer session.

 

A statement released by Egypt’s foreign ministry said it was an attempt to tarnish the country’s image despite Cairo’s “continuous backing” of Palestinian rights

 

The ministry also challenged the media when it said “anybody who has ears can check the video of the meeting with the high-school students that is available on the Facebook page of the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry.”

 

It added: “The question posed by the [students] had no connection whatsoever to the murder of innocent Palestinians.”

 

The statement also explained that Shoukry’s statement in question was an answer to a general question about the international community’s failure to define Israeli practices against Palestinians as terrorism.

 

It said that Shoukry’s remarks were specifically to address the “global disagreement over the distinction between the legal and the political overtones of the term terrorism” and “the definition of the concept of state terrorism.”

 

The ministry reiterated Cairo’s “full support for Palestinian rights.”

 

Egypt has long-advocated for the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.