Representatives of more than fifty Arab and other Muslim countries called for an end to violence in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon at a summit in Saudi Arabia on Monday.
The summit, in its final declaration, called for the mobilization of international support to freeze Israel’s participation in the United Nations and stop Israeli aggression in the region.
The summit participants called on all countries to ban the export or transfer of arms and ammunition to Israel.
The final statement strongly condemned the ongoing and persistent “Israeli aggression against Lebanon and the violation of its sovereignty and the sanctity of its territory” and called for an immediate ceasefire. It also condemned Israeli attacks on UN personnel in Lebanon.
The statement also lashed out at what it described as “the heinous and shocking crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip in the context of the crime of genocide, including mass graves, torture and field executions.”
The participants renewed their call for the establishment of a Palestinian state. “The only path to lasting peace in the region is the two-state solution,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan.
He added that the failure to stop aggression against Gaza is “a failure for the international community.”
Saudi Arabia had already invited people to a similar meeting a year ago.
Israel is waging a war against the militant Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, alongside a parallel conflict with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has been attacking Israel for a year: according to itself, it supports Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which in turn caused a massacre with around 1,200 deaths in Israel on October 7, 2023.
