Arab, Islamic leaders hold urgent summits to stop Israeli aggression

Based on Qatar’s solid and firm keenness to support the Palestinian cause and support its people in all forums to achieve their legitimate rights, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will participate Saturday in the urgent Arab summit, and Sunday in the extraordinary Islamic summit, which is being held in Riyadh.
The urgent Arab and Islamic summits take place under exceptional, extremely dangerous, and delicate circumstances, as they are expected to discuss the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and its grave repercussions.
Since the outbreak of confrontations between Palestinians and Israelis in the Gaza Strip on Oct 7, Qatar has been keen to reduce escalation and calm the situation until reaching a complete cessation of fighting to stop the bloodshed and prevent the region from sliding into a broader circle of violence.
Qatar’s priorities in its diplomatic movements were to seek an immediate ceasefire, protect civilians, release prisoners, and work to limit the expansion of violence and the circle of conflict in the region.
The two summits are expected to discuss the Arab and Islamic steps at the international level to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as quickly as possible, open the crossings, and bring in necessary and urgent aid to Gaza’s residents. The Arab and Islamic summits are considered the strongest political and diplomatic movement to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, and they represent about 57 countries and more than 1.3bn people, which can push the international community to listen to the decisions and demands that will be issued by the two summits in order to stop the fighting in the Gaza Strip, open the crossings leading to it, and spare the region from any serious repercussions that the continuation of the conflict will bring.
It is expected that the two summits will issue many steps and movements that will give the Arab, Islamic, and international efforts more significant momentum and effectiveness to a ceasefire and the bombing of civilians in the Gaza Strip and open the crossings to aid and humanitarian relief materials as quickly as possible to move ahead and focus on addressing the causes of the conflict, ending the occupation, and helping the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights.
The two summits will be held as the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip enters its second month, targeting residential areas, hospitals, mosques, and schools with bombing by airstrikes, sea, and land, leaving thousands of martyrs and wounded, most of them children, women, and the elderly. At the same time, there are still hundreds under the rubble which have not been recovered due to the dangerous field conditions amidst a severe siege on the Gaza Strip, preventing the entry of fuel and vital aid, which increases the complexity and danger of the situation on the lives of civilians and threatens a humanitarian catastrophe.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to the current destruction of the Gaza Strip, which he said has already turned into “graveyard for children” considering the violent bombing that the Strip has been subjected to since the Oct 7. The UN secretary-general also called again for allowing more humanitarian aid to enter to the besieged Strip, stressing the necessity of reaching a humanitarian truce to deliver aid to those affected by the Israeli aggression against the Strip.
The Regional Director for Arab States in the UN Population Fund commented on the humanitarian situation in Gaza by saying that she is at a loss for words about the catastrophic situation on the ground and the loss of complete humanity in what the world sees in Gaza. She added that what the Strip is facing is an unprecedented and unparalleled brutality in the history of humanity in recent times.
International reports indicate that the aid entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, which represents a lifeline for around 2.3mn Palestinians living in Gaza, is still limited, and showed that 500 trucks were entering the Gaza Strip daily before Oct 7. The reports said that the total trucks that entered since the start of the attack through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip were 821 trucks. That is less than 4% of the needs of the people in Gaza. UN aid agencies estimate that the Gaza Strip might need 200 trucks a day to meet the humanitarian needs of its people.
On Oct 18, the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) held a meeting at the level of foreign ministers regarding the Israeli aggression against Gaza, at which the OIC called for an immediate ceasefire and to allow the entry of food, medical, and relief aid for Gaza’s residents.
Over the past 77 years, the Arab League has held 46 summits, including 31 regular and 15 urgent, as well as four economic-development summits. The Palestinian issue formed a significant focus in the meetings of the Arab League, and Doha hosted three Arab summits that took several significant stances toward the Palestinian issue. Among them was an emergency Arab summit held in January 2009 called the Gaza Summit, which called for the establishment of a fund for the reconstruction of Gaza and the halt of all forms of normalisation with the Israeli entity.
In March 2009, Doha hosted the 21st regular Arab Summit, where the Doha Summit Declaration stressed the necessity of setting a specific time frame for Israel to fulfil its obligations towards the peace process. Then came the 24th Arab Summit in Doha in March 2013, which saw the State of Qatar’s strong support for Al-Aqsa Mosque, as Qatar launched an initiative to establish a fund to support Jerusalem with a budget of $1bn.
On the Islamic level, the OIC was established by a decision of the Islamic Summit Conference, which was held for the first time in Rabat on Sept 22-25, 1969, following the responses that arose in the Islamic world after the burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Aug 21, 1969, by an extremist Australian Jew. The name of the organisation was changed to the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation at the 38th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in Nur-Sultan on June 28-30, 2011.
Since its establishment, the OIC has held 14 regular summits and 7 extraordinary summit meetings, hosted by various member states. Qatar hosted two Islamic summits. The first was the 9th regular Islamic summit, which was held in November 2000 under the slogan of peace and development. Its deliberations were dominated by the issue of Jerusalem and the bloody events in the occupied Palestinian territories. At the conclusion of the summit, His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani proposed a delegation of foreign ministers from the member states of the OIC to be sent to the UN and the permanent members of the UN Security Council to conduct the necessary contacts to immediately stop the Israeli bombing and aggression against the Palestinian people and secure the necessary international protection for them. The second summit was held in Doha in March 2003. It focused on the Iraqi and Palestinian issues.