Hyderabad, April 9 -- Egypt's Grand Mufti, Nazir Ayyad, has firmly rejected a fatwa issued by the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which declared armed jihad against Israeli forces a religious duty for every able-bodied Muslim.

The fatwa, which shared on Friday, April 4, via IUMS Secretary-General Ali Al-Qaradaghi on X, has sparked debate across the Muslim world.

In a statement on X on Monday, April 7, Ayyad said that "the Egyptian Dar al-Iftaa has reviewed recent calls for armed jihad against the Israeli occupation by every Muslim, and calls on Islamic countries to immediately intervene militarily and impose a counter-blockade."

In the first clause, the Egyptian Dar al-Ifta affirmed that "jihad is a precise legal concept...