Joint Arab-Islamic summit condemns Israel's attacks on Gaza, calls for immediate end of military operation

Xinhua

Participants of the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Saturday denounced Israel's "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip and rejected Israel's claim that its actions against Palestinians in the coastal enclave were self-defense.

The final communique released after the one-day summit, which took place in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and gathered the leaders of a number of Islamic and Arab countries as well as international organizations to discuss the situation in Gaza, called for an end to the military operations and siege of Gaza to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.

The communique also called for halting arms exports to Israel and called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel's violations in Gaza.

Participants of the meeting vowed to support Egypt's humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza and condemned attempts to displace Palestinians from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip or outside Gaza.

The summit was attended by dozens of leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.

The leaders demanded that the UN Security Council adopt "a binding resolution" to stop the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza.

In his opening speech, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud reiterated "demands for an immediate halt to military operations, for the provision of humanitarian corridors to aid civilians, and for enabling international humanitarian organizations to perform their roles."

He also called for releasing hostages and detainees, protecting innocent people, and coordinating efforts and actions to address the unfortunate situation in Gaza.

With his attendance at the summit, Raisi becomes the first Iranian head of state to visit Saudi Arabia in over a decade. Raisi's visit came after Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a landmark deal in March to normalize relations.

On the sidelines of the summit, he had separate meetings with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Sudan to discuss the situation in Gaza as well as bilateral relations.

During the summit, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi demanded an end to all practices that displace Palestinians to places outside their land.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an international peace conference to find a long-lasting solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel's attacks on Gaza have so far killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,500 children and 3,000 women, and wounded over 27,000 others, said Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila in a press conference on Saturday.

The Israeli escalation followed a massive attack launched by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) that runs Gaza, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel, according to revised figure announced by Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat on Saturday. Hamas also took more than 200 people to Gaza as hostages during the attack.

Qatar's Emir announced during the summit that his country was trying to mediate the release of hostages.

Hamas on Saturday called on the leaders of Arab and Islamic nations to pressure Israel to stop its "war" against the besieged coastal enclave.