Daily Times

Saudi Arabia on Monday convened an extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the escalating military situation in Gaza, said an official announcement from headquarters of the 57-member bloc in Jeddah.

The extraordinary summit will take place on November 12 as leaders of the Islamic countries are expected to attend.

The Iranian president has already confirmed his participation while no decision has been taken yet by Pakistan that who would go to the summit.

But it is certain that either the president or prime minister would go given the importance of the issue Pakistan attaches to the Palestinian cause. The official statement said that the summit to be held in Riyadh would discuss the “brutal aggression against the Palestinian people.”

The leaders of the Islamic countries would gather after over a month since Israeli forces launched a brutal assault against the people of Gaza after the unprecedented operation by Hamas.

The number of people killed in the Israeli military offensive has crossed 10,000 with almost half of them being children.

The Israeli defence forces dropped 30,000 tons of ammunition on the Gaza strip in a month, surpassing even the US, which dropped 15,000 tons of ammunition on Japan in the Second World War.

The OIC’s executive committee earlier held an extraordinary session in Saudi Arabia on October 18 in response to the escalating military situation in Gaza.

The meeting was co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

It was decided that the council of foreign ministers’ meeting would be convened to discuss practical measures to stop genocide in Gaza.

However, since then the situation has further deteriorated, compelling the OIC to convene the summit.

The Executive Committee meeting after its extraordinary session last month issued a joint communiqué, accusing Israel for committing “war crimes”.

It also strongly criticised the UN Security Council for failing to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe but more importantly launched a broadside against the Israeli backers for their “double standards” and held them responsible for encouraging the Jewish State to commit atrocities with impunity.

It urged the international community to act swiftly and to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for these heinous war crimes against the Palestinian people and humanity at large, and called for immediate intervention to halt the massacre.

“Israel, the occupying power, bears full responsibility for the fate of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the real tragedy they are subjected to under bombardment, siege, and starvation, without electricity, food, or clean water, while being forced to abandon their homes, and for the policy of indiscriminate collective punishment that it applies in a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as its legal responsibilities as the occupying power in accordance with the Geneva Conventions,” read the joint communiqué.

It stressed the importance of preserving the lives of all civilians, and not targeting them in any way being inconsistent with international law and international humanitarian law, as well as divine laws.

The OIC categorically rejected calls to displace the population of Gaza Strip and affirmed its support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land; stressed the importance for the international community to play its role in preventing any attempt of forced displacement of the Palestinian population from their land, transferring the crisis to the neighboring countries and exacerbating issue of Palestinian refugees.

The OIC also wanted to stop the military escalation, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, and contributing urgently to the entry of relief and humanitarian aid for civilians.