Saturday’s emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes after deadly attacks by Hamas on October 7, which Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 239 hostage.
The Israeli air and ground offensive that followed killed more than 11,000 people, including mostly civilians and many children, according to Hamas’ health ministry.
Aid groups have joined calls for a ceasefire, warning of a humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza, where food, water and medicine are in short supply.
The Arab League and the OIC were originally supposed to meet separately.
Arab diplomats told AFP the decision to merge the meetings came after Arab League delegates failed to agree on a final statement.
Some countries, including Algeria and Lebanon, have proposed responding to the destruction in Gaza by threatening to cut off oil supplies to Israel and its allies, as well as cutting economic and diplomatic ties that some Arab League countries have with Israel, diplomats said.
At least three countries – including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalized ties with Israel in 2020 – rejected the proposal, however, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Before the meeting, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said it did not “expect anything” to come of it, criticizing Arab leaders for the delay.
“We do not place our hopes on such meetings, because we have seen their results over many years,” said Mohammad al-Hindi, deputy general secretary of the group, at a press conference in Beirut, Fena reports.
