TOKYO, July 31, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The Israeli ambassador to Japan will not be
invited to Nagasaki's annual peace ceremony, the city's mayor said Wednesday,
adding the decision was taken to avoid unexpected trouble and was not
politically motivated.

The city in southern Japan last month invited dozens of countries and
territories to the August 9 event on the anniversary of the US nuclear
bombing in 1945.

Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters the decision was "not politically
motivated" but based on a desire to "hold the ceremony in a peaceful and
sombre atmosphere".

The city had been holding off inviting ambassador Gilad Cohen due to the
"potential risk of contingencies" arising from "various developments
worldwide around the present Middle East situation".

Concerns over that risk still persist, Suzuki said, describing Cohen's
exclusion as a "very tough decision".

Last month, Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy
calling for an "immediate ceasefire".

The ambassador, for his part, called Wednesday's decision "regrettable" and
said it "sends a wrong message to the world".

"As a close friend and like-minded nation of Japan, Israel has attended this
ceremony for many years to honor the victims and their families," he wrote on
social media platform X.

Israel launched a blistering military offensive in Gaza last year, following
an attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on the country.

The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the death of 1,197 people in
Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official
Israeli figures.

More than 39,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza
Strip since the war broke out, according to data provided by the health
ministry of Hamas-run Gaza.

Hiroshima has invited Israel to its ceremony but in its letter called for a
"ceasefire as soon as possible and resolution through dialogue", a city
official said.

Around 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the
United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities in August 1945, leading to
the end of World War II.