Gulf bloc calls for ending Israeli onslaught on Gaza

By Anadolu staff

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) urged on Wednesday the international community to act to end Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip.

“The dangerous conditions in the Gaza Strip and its outcome have led to the expansion of instability in the region and the world,” GCC Secretary-General Jasem Al-Budaiwi said in a speech during a strategic conversation session with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

He stressed the need for the international community “to move to end the crisis in the Gaza Strip and stop the dangerous Israeli aggression, which has exceeded and violated all international charters, treaties and agreements.”

This “requires all of us to cooperate, join hands, and collectively work to stop this crisis,” he added.

The GCC chief underscored the “crucial need to provide urgent humanitarian and relief support to the affected Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.''

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas which killed around 1,200 people.

At least 32,975 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,577 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which last week asked it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul