Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman has branded Israel’s war on Gaza as genocide in his strongest condemnation yet, demanding an immediate end to the military assault.

Opening a major Arab and Muslim leaders’ summit in Riyadh, the Crown Prince blasted Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

“The kingdom reiterates its denunciation of the genocide perpetrated by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people, which resulted in more than 150,000 martyrs, wounded and missing, the majority of whom are women and children,” he said in his keynote speech.

The crown prince condemned the “massacre committed against Palestinian and Lebanese people” and demanded Israel “refrain from any further act of aggression.” He also called on countries around the world to recognise Palestinian statehood.

He took particular aim at Israeli ‘desecration’ of Al-Aqsa Mosque and criticised Israel’s banning of the UNRWA aid agency.

In the summit’s closing statement on Monday, the assembled leaders said they “condemn in the strongest terms” the Israeli army’s actions “in the context of the crime of genocide … especially in the northern Gaza Strip during the past weeks”, citing torture, executions, disappearances and “ethnic cleansing”.

They also condemned Israel’s tightening grip on occupied East Jerusalem and demanded all Palestinian territories – including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem – be united as one sovereign state

“We reaffirm the full sovereignty of the State of Palestine over occupied East [Jerusalem], the eternal capital of Palestine, and reject any Israeli decisions or measures aimed at Judaising it and consolidating its colonial occupation of the city,” the summit’s closing statement said.

The summit comes as far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich instructed his department to prepare plans for annexing the occupied West Bank – a move that would violate international law.

Speaking at a meeting in his Religious Zionism party, Smotrich said that Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections gives them the “opportunity” to get “sovereignty” over the West Bank.

The president-elect has already given an indication that his pro-Israel stance is unlikely to differ in his second term after he picked staunch pro-Israeli Elise Stefanik as his ambassador to the United Nations.

Erdogan cites weak response from Muslim countries

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel wants ‘to annihilate Palestinians’ and criticised Western nations for providing ‘political, economic, military and moral support’ to Israel.

He also turned his fire on Muslim countries for their weak response, acknowledging “the failure of Muslim countries to respond adequately” to the situation in Gaza.

“We must maintain our coordinated efforts to put pressure towards measures against those committing genocide in Palestine,” he said, adding that Muslim countries should put their differences aside when it comes to joint action against Israel.

Palestinian President Abbas demanded immediate sanctions on Israel and called for settlement expansion to be halted ‘within one year.’

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned Israel’s attacks threaten his nation’s very survival. “Lebanon is going through an unprecedented historical and existential crisis that threatens its present and future,” he said.

Arab League chief Aboul Gheit said, ‘Words cannot express the plight of the Palestinian people.’

“The actions taken by Israel against the Palestinian people are undermining efforts to achieve lasting peace. It is only with justice that we will be able to establish lasting peace,” he said.

Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref branded Israel’s killings as “organised terrorism.” 

“The operations that are conceptualised with the deceptive phrasing of ‘targeted killing’, and during which Palestinian elites and leaders of other countries in the region are killed one by one or en masse, are nothing but lawlessness and organised terrorism,” he said.