DUBAI (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia on Wednesday condemned “in the strongest terms” the Israeli ground operation in Gaza City, a day after Israel unleashed a long-threatened ground assault on the enclave.
The kingdom also urged members of the U.N. Security Council to act to halt what it described as Israel’s killing, starvation and forced displacement of Palestinians, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement,
Israel on Tuesday started a ground offensive to seize control of Gaza’s main urban centre.
There has been a wave of criticism from countries around the region including Qatar, which has been hosting and mediating ceasefire talks.
Qatar described the Israeli ground offensive as a continuation of its ‘war of genocide’ against the Palestinians.
After a U.N. Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, Israel’s ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, called the report “scandalous” and “fake”, saying it had been authored by “Hamas proxies”.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
