King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has taken the initiative to convene an emergency meeting of member states within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The OIC, comprising 57 member states across four continents, stands as the second-largest international organization after the United Nations and serves as the collective voice of the Muslim world.
As indicated in a statement posted on the OIC’s official website on Sunday, this crucial meeting is scheduled to occur on October 18 and 19 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The primary focus of this emergency gathering is to address the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, a region marked by the confrontations between Hamas and Israel.
“At the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which chairs the current session of the Islamic Summit and the Executive Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Organization’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,” the statement reads.
“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
On October 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented and coordinated land, air and sea incursion of Israel which reportedly killed 1,300 Israelis.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli retaliatory strikes, including 614 children and 370 women.
