Arab, Muslim officials call for ‘effective sanctions’ on Israel over ‘war crimes’

Arab and Muslim officials meeting in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Sunday urged the international community to impose “effective sanctions” on Israel in response to its “war crimes” against Palestinians.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan chaired the meeting of the Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit to discuss the war in Gaza.

The meeting was attended by the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt and Turkey, as well as officials from Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The officials called on the international community to impose “effective sanctions” on Israel, advocating for measures such as halting arms exports to the country, according to the Saudi foreign ministry.

The officials accused Israel of violating international law and committing “war crimes” in both Gaza and the West Bank, and expressed their opposition to Israel’s long-feared invasion of Rafah city in southern Gaza.

The officials “also stressed the need to activate international legal tools to hold Israeli officials accountable for these crimes, and the need to stop settler terrorism and take clear and firm stances against it,” the Saudi foreign ministry said on its website.

The discussions explored avenues to advance the two-state solution while rejecting any attempts to displace Palestinians from their ancestral lands.

The officials also expressed concern regarding the measures taken against pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the West.

Sunday’s discussions came a day after Prince Faisal chaired a meeting of the six-party Arab ministerial group in Riyadh to discuss the war in Gaza.