As Israel continues hitting Hamas targets in Gaza and preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza City in retaliation for the horrific terror attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October, an important meeting of the OIC nations has been called. Saudi Arabia has called the meeting of the foreign ministers of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, popularly known as OIC, which is scheduled to be held on 18 October in Jeddah. The official notification was released on 14 October.
The statement read, “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.”
It further added, “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.”
The group of Muslim nations has repeatedly condemned the Jewish state for its retaliation after the gruesome 7 October attack by the Hamas terrorists which ended up in the murder of at least 1300 Israelis including the elderly, women and children and wounding multiple others. The terror outfit also took some hostages which consisted of children.
Around 1900 Palestinians have died and thousands of people have been injured in Israeli strikes. The total number of deaths on both sides is at least 3,200. Israel’s military has ordered the Gaza residents to leave the northern Gaza Strip for the southern region as the country is gearing up for a ground invasion whereas Hamas has told them to remain there. About 400,000 people evacuated southward after the Jewish state ordered a 24-hour evacuation order for the northern portions of the territory, according to the OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) of the United Nations humanitarian organisation.
Furthermore, Palestinians confined in Gaza are dealing with a power outage, a scarcity of food and water and ferocious Israeli bombing while United States President Joe Biden stressed on solving the humanitarian problem presented by the violent confrontation in the Middle East.
