Muslim World Leaders Call for Immediate End to War in Gaza

Leaders of Muslim countries gathered in Riyadh this Saturday to call for an immediate end to the war between Hamas and Israel and the non-stop crimes of Tel Aviv in Gaza.

This Saturday, leaders of Muslim countries gathered in Saudi Arabia during the joint Islamic-Arab summit to unanimously call for an immediate end to military operations in Gaza. During the meeting, which was held in Riyadh, Muslim world leaders also denounced Israel’s justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defense. They also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate “war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing” in the Palestinian lands.

Speaking first as the host of the meeting, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman affirmed his country’s “condemnation and categorical rejection of this barbaric war against our brothers in Palestine.” He also noted that “we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe that proves the failure of the Security Council and the international community to put an end to the flagrant Israeli violations of international laws.”

Among the famous figures who were present in the summit were Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was among the world leaders in the summit, used the opportunity to send the voice of Palestinians to the Muslim world and said his people were facing a “genocidal war.”

Criticizing the United States for its unwavering support of Israel, President Abbas urged Washington to end supporting Israeli “aggression”. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also took the podium to denounce the war in Gaza. He first hailed the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas for fighting against Israel and urged Islamic countries to impose oil and goods sanctions on Israel. “There is no other way but to resist Israel. We kiss the hands of Hamas for its resistance against Israel,” Raisi said in his address.

Death toll continues to rise in Gaza

As Israeli airstrikes and ground invasion in Gaza continues, the death tool in the densely-populated area of Palestine also continues to rise. On Sunday, the government media office in Gaza updated the casualty figures after a gap of two days. It raised the death toll to 11,100, including more than 8,000 children and women. The last official update came on November 10.

“Due to the targeting of hospitals and the prevention of entry of any of the bodies or wounded, the Ministry of Health was unable, on Saturday, to issue accurate statistics for the numbers of dead and injured during the past hours,” the media office said in a statement. The Health Ministry in Gaza has been providing daily updates since the war started following the surprise Hamas attack inside Israel killed about 1,200 people.

Saturday summit, a slap in the face for Netanyahu

The joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh the Saturday was indeed a slap in the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had urged Arab states a day before to “stand up against Hamas.”

“Hamas only brought two things to the Gaza Strip – poverty and blood, and it is an integral part of the terror axis that Iran leads and that axis of terror and hatred endangers the whole world and the whole Arab world. And that’s why all Arab countries should stand up against Hamas,” Netanyahu said at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Friday.