Israel is committing genocide in Gaza: Crown Prince Salman

Last Updated on November 15, 2024 5:20 am

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has strongly condemned Israel, accusing it of “genocide” in Gaza. This is the first time the country has publicly reacted so strongly to the issue since the war began.

He criticized Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Iran at a conference of Muslim and Arab leaders.

The Saudi crown prince warned Israel against attacking Iranian soil, showing signs of improving relations between the two regional rivals Riyadh and Tehran.

At the same time, he joined other leaders in calling for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said that the failure to stop the war in Gaza is a failure of the international community. He blamed Israel for the severe food crisis in Gaza.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud said that the international community failed to stop the conflict and Israeli aggression at the initial stage.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israeli territory, which triggered the war. It killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

Israel launched a counter-offensive to destroy Hamas. More than 43,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza.

A report by the UN Human Rights Office said that 70 percent of the identified victims were women and children.

Other leaders attending the summit also condemned Israel’s “relentless attacks” on UN personnel and facilities in Gaza.

Last month, the Israeli parliament passed a bill to ban the UN refugee agency from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, accusing it of working with Hamas.

Several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have expressed deep concern about such moves to limit efforts to deliver aid to Gaza.

In such a context, this year’s conference comes at a time when Donald Trump is returning to the White House after winning the US election.

Gulf leaders are aware of Trump’s closeness to Israel. But he also has good relations with leaders in the region. They want Trump to use his influence to resolve the conflict in the region through an agreement.

Donald Trump is considered more favorable in Saudi Arabia than Joe Biden. Although he has mixed views on what he has done in the past in the Middle East.

He pleased Israel by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but angered the Muslim world.

He signed the ‘Abraham Accords’ in 2020, through which Israel established full diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Sudan also agreed to do the same.

The agreement was then concluded under the mediation of the Trump administration. Through this, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the third and fourth Gulf states to recognize Israel since the birth of the State of Israel in 1948.

After Trump’s victory, a Saudi newspaper headline read, “A New Era of Hope. Trump’s Return and Promise of Stability.”

Trump chose Saudi Arabia for his first foreign trip after being sworn in as president in 2017. Through his son-in-law Jared Kushner, he maintained warm relations with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On the other hand, by recognizing Jerusalem, he pleased Israel and disappointed the Arab world.

In January 2020, then US President Donald Trump announced a plan for Israel and Palestine. The most controversial part of it was the approval of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Most other countries consider these settlements illegal. However, Trump has always been vocal against Iran.

In 2018, he withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran. He called the deal “the worst deal in history.”

He angered Iran by ordering the assassination of Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020. But many Gulf countries were happy with that. But it is also true that the Middle East today is not the same Middle East he left behind when he left the White House at the end of his first term.