Israeli parliamentary delegation calls for support after Iran's attack

Taipei, April 15 (CNA) A parliamentary delegation from Israel met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday and later held a press conference to call for support after Israel was attacked by Iran on Sunday.

The delegation, composed of four members from the Israeli Knesset (parliament), thanked Taiwan for its support following the attack by Iran.

According to information provided by the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, Iran targeted Israel with around 170 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), 120 ballistic missiles, and 30 cruise missiles on Sunday night (local time).

The only person seriously injured in the aerial barrage was a 7-year-old girl, who was hit on her head by shrapnel and underwent surgery.

Iran's attack was a response to a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1 that left seven senior Iranian military officials dead, foreign media reported.

Boaz Toporovsky, chairman of the Taiwan-Israel Friendship Group, said the delegation appreciated the collaboration between Taiwan and Israel and the support shown by Tsai and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) in the wake of the Iranian attacks.

"Yesterday, we saw that Taiwan also stood with us," he said.

Describing the attacks Sunday as coming not only from Iran but also simultaneously from other Arab countries such as Iraq and Yemen, Toporovsky said they were not just attacks against Israel, but an "attack against the free democratic world."

Toporovsky also pointed to the similar situation in which Taiwan and Israel find themselves, including that the two countries are "small but strong democracies in a very harsh environment."

Of the four delegation members, only one, Boaz Bismuth, was from the Likud party, which is part of the governing coalition in Israel, while the other three were from the opposition Yesh Atid party.

Yet Bismuth said that at this challenging time in Israeli history, there were no party differences, only a united party called the "Party of Israel."

Regarding what Israel needs at the moment, Bismuth said that with 120,000 people forced to evacuate from their homes, Israel needs humanitarian aid, and he said the international community should care about the situation there.

"I think Taiwan felt exactly the grief in which we were the first day [after the attack], and solidarity is the word," the former journalist said.

As for the state of bilateral relations, Israel's representative to Taiwan, Maya Yaron, said there were numerous areas in which the two countries were cooperating or planning to cooperate, including tourism, innovation and agriculture.

She said there was also a mutual interest between Taiwan and Israel in cooperating to strengthen the two sides' resilience.

According to a news release from the Office of the President, Tsai expressed her concern and sympathy to the delegation, that also included Vladimir Beliak and Matti Sarfatti-Harcavi.

She condemned the use of violence to undermine global peace and stability and said she looked forward to the two countries leveraging their own industrial strengths and continuing to deepen their partnership based on the shared values of freedom and democracy.

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