The top diplomats of the six GCC countries met as at least 200 people were killed in attacks on a hospital in Gaza.
Muscat:
The Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday announced $100 million in emergency aid for the Gaza Strip as Israel bombs targets in the enclave during its war against Hamas militants.
After an extraordinary meeting in Muscat, the bloc’s foreign ministers pledged “an urgent humanitarian aid operation” with “aid worth $100 million.”
The top diplomats of the six GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – met as at least 200 people were killed in attacks on a Gaza hospital complex housing displaced people, Hamas said. controls the Gaza Strip.
Israel blamed a failed rocket fired by Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based militant group that claims to be fighting alongside Hamas.
After Palestinian Hamas militants stormed the heavily fortified Gaza border 11 days ago and shot, maimed and burned more than 1,400 people in southern Israel, Israel’s retaliatory bombings have killed about 3,000 Gazans.
The GCC meeting’s closing statement emphasized “the need to ensure the urgent delivery of this aid” without specifying how it will reach Gaza.
In recent days, Gulf states have sent planeloads of aid to Egypt’s El Arish, hoping to reach it through the Rafah crossing point – Gaza’s only border crossing not under Israeli control.
Hundreds of loaded trucks traveled along the 40-kilometer road from El Arish to Rafah on Tuesday, emergency officials said.
So far, Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing closed, both to ease entry and to help foreigners flee, as Israel has repeatedly hit the Palestinian side of the crossing.
GCC Secretary General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi “called on the international community to… demand an immediate end to all forms of military escalation against defenseless civilians in Gaza,” an English statement on the GCC website said.
The international community must also “categorically reject any calls to forcibly expel the Palestinian people from Gaza as this constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights and international principles,” it added.
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