Muslim leaders in Saudi to focus on Gaza, Lebanon peace
- 11 Nov 2024
Arab and Muslim leaders have begun arriving in Saudi Arabia for a summit scheduled for Monday that will focus on Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Saudi state media said.
The Saudi foreign ministry announced the summit in late October during the first meeting of an “international alliance” pushing for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Attendees will “discuss the continued Israeli aggression on the Palestinian territories and the Lebanese Republic, and the current developments in the region,” the official Saudi Press Agency said on Sunday.
It comes one year after a similar gathering in Riyadh of the Cairo-based Arab League and the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) during which leaders condemned Israeli forces’ actions in Gaza as “barbaric.”
The Saudi state-affiliated Al Ekhbariya news channel broadcast footage on Sunday of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati landing in Riyadh.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was also scheduled to attend, the Pakistani foreign ministry said last week, adding that he planned to call for “an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza” and the “immediate cessation of the ongoing Israeli adventurism in the region.”
The 57-member OIC and 22-member Arab League include countries which recognise Israel and those firmly opposed to its regional integration.
DOZENS MORE KILLED: Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed dozens of people including children on Sunday in Lebanon and isolated northern Gaza, as the world watched for signs of how the US election might affect the war against Hamas and Hizbollah.
At least 38 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Sunday, including 23 in a raid north of the capital Beirut, the health ministry said.
An “Israeli enemy strike on Almat in the Jbeil district killed 23 people including seven children,” the health ministry said in a statement, adding that body parts had been recovered from the site and were being identified.
The strike hit a house shortly after a Hezbollah member arrived there for a visit, a security source told reporters, adding that he was injured and later died in hospital.
In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on a home sheltering displaced people in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya killed at least 17 people including nine women, according to Dr Fadel Naim, director of Al Ahly Hospital in Gaza City.
A separate strike hit a house in Gaza City, killing Wael Al Khour, a minister in the Hamas-run government, as well as his wife and three children, according to the Civil Defence first responders who operate under the government.
AIRSTRIKE ON SYRIA: In Syria, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab and the Defence Ministry said seven civilians were killed, state news agency SANA reported. Britain-based opposition war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights suggested Hezbollah was targeted. Israel did not immediately comment.
UAE AID: Following the directive of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Humanitarian has mobilised urgent relief supplies for people directly affected by the conflict in Lebanon.
The relief material provided by the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, totals 192 metric tonnes. Transportation by land allows for a larger volume of supplies to be efficiently dispatched.
A convoy comprising 27 trucks, funded by Dubai Humanitarian’s Global Humanitarian Impact Fund, commenced the operation on Nov.4, 2024.
The mission aims to ensure swift and organised distribution of aid to distressed communities in Lebanon as the approaching winter heightens the need for accelerating humanitarian interventions.
AID DEADLINE: The mid-month deadline is approaching for the Biden administration’s ultimatum for Israel: Allow more aid into Gaza or risk possible restrictions on US military funding.
Israeli forces have encircled and largely isolated Jabaliya and the nearby northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun for the past month, allowing only a trickle of humanitarian aid. Experts from a panel that monitors food security say famine is imminent or may already be happening.
The northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, has suffered the heaviest destruction of the 13-month war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has spoken three times with US President-elect Donald Trump since Tuesday’s election and they “see eye-to-eye regarding the Iranian threat and all of its components.”
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
Israeli bombardment and ground invasions have left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and displaced around 90% of the population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands live in tent camps with few if any services.
Agencies
