Condemns Israel's Violations In Gaza, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince: Forced Transfer Of Palestinians Must Stop

JAKARTA - Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman condemned Israel's "violations" in the Gaza Strip, when diplomats met in Riyadh regarding a collective response to the war on Friday.

"We condemn the violations witnessed in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation authorities and reiterated our position that the forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza must be stopped," Prince Mohammed said when opening the Saudi-African Arabian summit.

The summit is one of several meetings held in Saudi Arabia this weekend. Foreign ministers from 22 members of the Arab League arrived in Riyadh on Thursday for a two-day closed meeting.

Sources said their meeting continued at the Intercontinental Riyadh Hotel at 4 p.m. local time on Friday, adding delegations from a wider Islamic state, including Iran, would attend.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to attend a joint emergency meeting of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Saturday. His visit to Saudi Arabia will be the first for Iran's heads of state since the two countries restored relations this year.

This wave of diplomacy comes as Israel shows no sign of stopping its military offensive in Gaza, although there are reports they will start "traffic" for four hours each day in fighting in the northern region of Gaza.

Meanwhile, Arab countries condemned Israel's ground operations and called for a ceasefire, something Israel rejected.

Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki told reporters, the United States and other Western countries had tried to influence Arab countries, to propose a multinational force solution that would include Arab and Western forces to manage Gaza to calm Israel.

"All ideas proposed by Israel or other countries to separate Gaza from the West Bank have been rejected, and Arab positions have been very clear since the beginning of the war," Zaki stressed after a meeting at the foreign ministerial level.

"We demand a complete ceasefire, not a humanitarian ceasefire and the political solution is the implementation of the Arab Peace Initiative," he said.