Israel-Hamas war: Islamic nations' group calls 'urgent, extraordinary' meet as military situation in Gaza escalates

Following an eight-day battle between Hamas and Israel that has resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries, Saudi Arabia has convened an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) foreign ministers to examine the violence in Gaza.

“At the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which chairs the current session of the Islamic Summit and the Executive Committee of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the organisation’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,” OIC said in a statement.

“The extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of the OIC will take place on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, at the General Secretariat headquarters in Jeddah Governorate,” added the statement.

The OIC is the second-largest organisation after the United Nations with a membership of 57 nations spread over four continents. It calls itself “the collective voice of the Muslim world.”

The OIC’s urgent meeting call comes after Saudi Arabia suspended talks on potentially normalising ties with Israel.

“Saudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,” a source familiar with the discussions told news agency AFP.

The Gulf kingdom, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has never recognised Israel and did not join the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords that saw its Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates as well as Morocco establish formal ties with Israel.

Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel on 7 October which killed 1,300 people, sparking a retaliatory bombing campaign that has killed at least 2,215 in the Gaza Strip ahead of a potential Israeli ground invasion of the territory.

With inputs from agencies