Foreign ministers from Muslim nations on Saturday rejected calls by US President Donald Trump to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population and backed a plan for an administrative committee of Palestinians to govern the territory to allow reconstruction to go ahead.
The foreign ministers gathered in the Saudi city of Jeddah for a special session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to address the situation in Gaza, at a time when the 7-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been thrown into doubt.
In a statement put out on Saturday, the gathering threw its support behind a plan to rebuild Gaza put forward by Egypt and backed by Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, aimed at countering Trump’s call. The OIC groups 57 nations with largely Muslim populations.
Without specifically mentioning Trump, the ministers said they rejected “plans aimed at displacing the Palestinian people individually or collectively … as ethnic cleansing, a grave violation of international law and a crime against humanity.” They also condemned “policies of starvation” that they said aim to push Palestinians to leave.
The OIC also reinstated Syria as a member of the grouping.
The ceasefire that began in mid-January brought a pause in Israel’s campaign of bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas after its October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. The ceasefire’s first phase saw the release of 25 Israeli hostages held by militants in Gaza and the bodies of eight others in exchange for the freeing of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
