Arab and Muslim leaders meet in Saudi to discuss Gaza, Lebanon wars

Arab and Muslim leaders have started arriving in Saudi Arabia ahead of a summit on Monday focused on the ongoing conflicts between Israel and Gaza, as well as Lebanon, according to Saudi state media.

The summit, announced by the Saudi foreign ministry in late October, follows the first meeting of an “international alliance” advocating for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Attendees are expected to discuss Israel’s ongoing actions in Palestinian territories and Lebanon, as well as broader developments in the region, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday.

This summit follows a similar one held a year ago in Riyadh, where leaders from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned Israeli military actions in Gaza as “barbaric.”

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The Saudi state-affiliated Al-Ekhbariya news channel broadcast footage on Sunday of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati landing in Riyadh.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also scheduled to attend, the Pakistani foreign ministry said last week, adding that he planned to call for “an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza” and the “immediate cessation of the ongoing Israeli adventurism in the region”.

The 57-member OIC and 22-member Arab League include countries which recognise Israel and those firmly opposed to its regional integration.

Last year’s summit in Riyadh saw disagreement on measures like severing economic and diplomatic ties with Israel and disrupting its oil supplies.

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The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 43,600 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, began firing on Israel after the October 7 attack.

The regular cross-border exchanges escalated in late September when Israel intensified its air strikes before sending ground troops into southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.

With inputs from agencies.