OIC calls for immediate end to Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza

The Executive Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has stressed the importance of preserving the lives of all civilians, and not targeting them in any way being inconsistent with international law and international humanitarian law, as well as divine laws.

In its final communiqué of extraordinary open-ended meeting held at the level of foreign ministers in Jeddah, the OIC called on member states to apply all feasible and effective diplomatic, legal and deterrent measures, to stop Israel's crimes against humanity.

The meeting was held on 18 October, upon the joint invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Chair of the current session of the Islamic Summit and Chair of the Executive Committee, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to discuss the ongoing Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people.

In light of the blatant and unprecedented Israeli aggression in the occupied Palestinian territory and the heinous massacres perpetrated against civilians in Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation forces, the meeting called for the immediate cessation of the barbaric aggression of the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people and the immediate lifting of the siege imposed to the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli aggression led to hundreds of innocent civilian casualties, thousands of injuries, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands through the demolition of their homes.

The OIC reaffirmed its strong condemnation of the unprecedented aggression against civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the entire occupied Palestinian territory by killing, bombing, deliberately destroying infrastructure, threatening to commit atrocities and to exterminate them, as well as the absolute rejection of targeting civilians under any pretext or displacing them from their homes, or starving and depriving them of safe access to humanitarian aid in contravention of all international norms and laws, and of the most basic humanitarian principles and values.

The meeting called upon all countries to quickly provide humanitarian, medical and relief aid, water and electricity, and to open humanitarian corridors immediately in order to safely deliver urgent aid to the Gaza Strip, including through the United Nations institutions particularly the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and support its efforts in this regard.

Israel, the occupying power, bears full responsibility for the fate of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the real tragedy they are subjected to under bombardment, siege, and starvation, without electricity, food, or clean water, while being forced to abandon their homes, and for the policy of indiscriminate collective punishment that it applies in a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as its legal responsibilities as the occupying power in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, according to the joint communiqué.

It expressed its strong regret and condemnation of the failure of the United Nations Security Council and its inability to discharge its responsibilities by taking a decisive decision to halt the war crimes carried out by the Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and all Palestinian territory, which negatively affect the Security Council's role in maintaining international peace and security and protecting unarmed civilians.

The meeting called upon the United Nations and the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities, to take all urgent measures to ensure an end to the brutal and barbaric aggression against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip and the entire Palestinian territory, to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, to provide protection for defenseless Palestinian civilians, and to stop the escalating humanitarian catastrophe carried out by the forces of the illegal Israeli occupation.