The Hebrew government denies Friday’s attack on Al-Shifa Hospital

Arab leaders and Iran’s president are meeting in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for a joint summit that is expected to highlight the urgency of ending Israel’s attacks on Gaza before the region devolves into conflict. Emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are being held in Riyadh, five weeks after the start of the war, sparked by a bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 on Israeli soil.

The Arab League and the OIC were originally scheduled to hold their meetings separately, but the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced early Saturday that the summits of the two organizations would be held jointly. This conclusion underscores the need to achieve “A unified joint position expressing the common Arab and Muslim will regarding the dangerous and unprecedented events witnessed in Gaza and the Palestinian Territories”Saudi News Agency said.

The Arab League will address “The way forward in the international arena is to end the occupation, support Palestine and its people, condemn the Israeli occupation and hold it accountable for its crimes.”Arab League Deputy Secretary General Hossam Zaki announced on Thursday.

However, Islamic Jihad, Hamas’s ally in Gaza, said it did not “nothing” Expect from this meeting. “We do not believe in such meetings”It never produced results, the group’s deputy secretary-general, Mohammed al-Hindi, told a press conference in Beirut on Friday. “It is true that this conference will be held after thirty-five days [de guerre] » He said that is a clear sign.

Israel and its key ally the United States have so far rejected calls for a ceasefire, a stance expected to draw sharp criticism at Saturday’s meetings.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi’s expected participation on Saturday will mark his first visit to Saudi Arabia since a surprise announcement in March that diplomatic ties between the Middle East’s two heavyweights were broken after a seven-year hiatus. Iran backs the Palestinian Hamas, but also Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, raising fears of an extension of the conflict.

Firefights continue daily between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border, while Yemeni rebels have claimed multiple drone and missile strikes against southern Israel.

Analysts say the Saudi monarchy, which maintains close ties to the United States, fears being targeted, considering normalizing ties with Israel before the war. On Friday, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and de facto ruler of the kingdom, issued a condemnation. “Persistent Violations of International Humanitarian Law by Israeli Occupation Forces”In his first public statement on the war.