OIC convenes extraordinary meeting over escalating situation in Gaza

ISLAMABAD: At the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will be held on 18 October, at the General Secretariat headquarters in Jeddah Governorate, to address the escalating military situation in Gaza, ARY News reported. 

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia currently chairs the current session of the Islamic Summit, a press statement of the OIC Secretariat in Jeddah said on Saturday.

“The Organization’s Executive Committee is convening an urgent open-ended extraordinary meeting at the ministerial level, to address the escalating military situation in Gaza and its environs as well as the deteriorating conditions that endanger the lives of civilians and the overall security and stability of the region,” it was said.

At the invitation of #SaudiArabia: An urgent Ministerial Meeting of the Executive Committee of the #OIC to Discuss the Military Escalation and the Threat to Defenseless Civilians in #Gaza is Scheduled for Wednesday in #Jeddah: https://t.co/wZvaCyIVvb pic.twitter.com/SMYGEfSuUW

— OIC (@OIC_OCI) October 14, 2023

Earlier in the day, it was reported that Israeli strikes on Gaza since Hamas’s deadly cross-border attack have killed at least 1,900 people, including 614 children, the territory’s health ministry said.

Some 370 women were among those killed in the seven days of air strikes, the Hamas-run health ministry said. It added that 7,696 people have been wounded.

Hamas took about 150 Israeli, foreign and dual national hostages back to Gaza in the initial attack, Israel has said.

Thousands of Palestinians fled to southern Gaza in search of refuge on Friday after Israel called for over a million of them to evacuate the north of the blockaded enclave before an expected ground offensive.

It comes amid continued strikes on the strip in retaliation for a surprise weekend attack by Hamas, the deadliest in Israel’s history.

Read More: More than 600 children killed in Gaza: health ministry

Saudi Arabia on Friday denounced the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and attacks on “defenceless civilians”, its strongest language criticising Israel since the war broke out.

Riyadh “affirms its categorical rejection of calls for the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza, and its condemnation of the continued targeting of defenceless civilians there,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Tensions have risen across the Middle East and beyond, with angry protests in support of the Palestinians, while Israel faces the threat of a separate confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A Reuters video journalist was killed and six other reporters — from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera — were injured in southern Lebanon close to Israel, caught up in cross-border shelling.

Thousands also demonstrated in support of the Palestinians on Friday in Beirut, Iraq, Iran and in Jordan.

The United Nations described the immediate movement of nearly half of the 2.4 million in the Gaza Strip as “impossible” called for the evacuation order to be rescinded.