Jordan, UAE, Bahrain ambassadors 'boycott' Israel iftar event, Turkey and Morocco attend

Ambassadors from Jordan, Bahrain, and the UAE skipped a Ramadan event organised by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday in a sign of a growing rift between Arab states and Israel.

The UAE and Bahrain instead sent lower-level diplomats to the foreign ministry iftar, although Egypt and Turkey's ambassadors did attend, The Times of Israel reported.

The head of Morocco's liaison office in Israel, Abderrahim Beyyoudh, also was present at the iftar.

The feast was intended to bring together the ambassadors of Muslim-majority nations at a time Israeli far-right ministers have caused a backlash in the Arab world over a series of inflammatory comments.

During the iftar, Israeli Foreign Minister Cohen praised the Abraham Accords - which saw Israel establish relations with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco - despite the apparent snub of the event by Abu Dhabi and Manama, saying it was his country's "greatest achievement in recent years".

"The Abraham Accords brought about a change in the relationship with the governments and no less, with the people in the Middle East," he added.

Yet there has been something of a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Arab states since the establishment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government in December.

Last month, Jordan summoned the Israeli ambassador to Amman for a dressing down after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told an audience in Paris that Palestinians "don't exist" - replete with an image on his lectern of a map of Israel stretching into the kingdom's borders.

On Sunday, Jordan's King Abdullah said it was the duty of all Muslims to oppose Israeli provocations at holy sites in Jerusalem.

There have also been reports of tensions with the UAE over the actions of Smotrich after he called for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian town of Hawara following a pogrom by Israeli settlers.

The UAE was also reportedly angered by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in January.

There have also been a regional uproar over Israel's ruthless repression of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which has seen 95 Palestinians killed.