Muslim nations must stand united and mobilise global opposition to Israel’s plan to seize control of Gaza City, said Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday, following his talks in Egypt.
Regional powers Egypt and Turkiye both condemned the plan on Friday. Ankara has said it marked a new phase in what it called Israel’s genocidal and expansionist policies, while calling for global measures to stop the plan’s implementation.
Israel rejects such description of its actions in Gaza.
OIC Emergency Meeting
Speaking at a joint press conference in El Alamein with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, after also meeting Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Fidan said the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had been called to an emergency meeting.
Fidan said Israel’s policy aimed to force Palestinians out of their lands through hunger and that it aimed to permanently invade Gaza, adding there was no justifiable excuse for nations to continue supporting Israel.
Israel denies having a policy of starvation in Gaza, and says Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed 1,200 people in its October 2023 attack, could end the war by surrendering.
‘Very Dangerous Development’
“What is happening today is a very dangerous development… not only for the Palestinian people or neighbouring countries,” Abdelatty said, adding that Israel’s plans were “inadmissible”.
Abdelatty said there was full coordination with Turkiye on Gaza, and referred to a statement issued on Saturday by the OIC Ministerial Committee condemning Israel’s plan.
The OIC committee said Israel’s plan marked “a dangerous and unacceptable escalation, a flagrant violation of international law, and an attempt to entrench the illegal occupation”, warning that it would “obliterate any opportunity for peace”.
OIC’s Call
Mediating teams from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been working for months to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The OIC urged world powers and the United Nations Security Council to “assume their legal and humanitarian responsibilities and to take urgent action to stop” Israel’s Gaza City plan, while ensuring immediate accountability for what it called Israeli violations of international law.
(With inputs from Reuters)
