“The opening of an embassy for the occupation state in Manama coincided with a crime committed by its forces that murdered a Palestinian woman at the Aqsa Mosque’s gates,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said in press remarks on Thursday.

Spokesman Qasem said that such Bahraini step would encourage the occupation state to persist in its crimes against the Palestinian people and the Islamic holy sites.

He warned that the normalization of relations with the occupation state would only serve its interests and colonial lies, calling for rallying strong popular and political positions in the Islamic and Arab worlds against the Arab-Israeli normalization agreements.

Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid started an official visit on Thursday (Sept 30) to Bahrain, where he will open the Israeli embassy one year following the US-brokered normalization of ties.

He is set to open israel’s embassy in Manama later in the day and to sign agreements on water, environment, and sports with the Gulf state.