Saudi king urges halt to Israeli attacks on Palestinians

By Ibrahim Al-Khazen

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AA) - Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud emphasized Tuesday the necessity of halting Israeli attacks against Palestinians.

"As we observe this blessed Eid al-Fitr this year, we emphasize the necessity of halting Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people,'' the king said in a recorded address delivered on his behalf by the Minister of Media, Salman Al-Dosari, as reported by the Saudi Press Agency.

He also stressed "the importance of providing safe and humanitarian corridors, and ending the suffering of the Palestinian people by enabling them to obtain all their legitimate rights, including the establishment of their independent state and living in security."

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

More than 33,300 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 76,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now in day 186, 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 is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul