Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Sunday condemned the burning to death by Islamists of at least 41 people—mostly high school students—in Mpondwe, Uganda.
The students were murdered on Friday in an attack carried out by Islamic State.
“The State of Israel is appalled by the cowardly terror attack against children and innocent civilians at a secondary school in Uganda, that has claimed the lives of dozens of people,” said Cohen.
“Israel will continue to stand by Uganda in the fight against terrorism that targets innocent civilians,” he added.
Terrorists from the Allied Democratic Forces reportedly affiliated with Islamic State attacked the Lhubirira Secondary School in the west of Uganda. They set fire to a dormitory and murdered students with knives.
It is believed that the group kidnapped six people.
Last week, Israeli lawmaker and former IDF chief Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eisenkot revealed that the Israel Defense Forces conducted overseas operations against Islamic State in 2015.
“ISIS knows best how frequently the IDF acted in the Middle East, and they paid a price in hundreds of killed and injured,” Eisenkot said at an Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv.
The National Unity Party Knesset member said that Jerusalem was asked to act against ISIS by an unspecified third party, but did not elaborate.
He also did not reveal where any of the activity took place, saying only that it spanned “many more than one country.”
