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Muslim nations to hold Gaza talks in Washington today
The contact group was formed last month at a joint summit of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the fighting in Gaza. It includes officials from Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Palestinian Authority and the OIC.
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This handout picture provided by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO) on November 11, 2023, shows front row from 2nd left: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, Egypt's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Palestinain president Mahmud Abbas, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, standing for a group picture ahead of an emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in Riyadh. (AFP/Thaher Ghanaim)
T
urkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will travel to Washington on Friday along with counterparts in a so-called contact group of Muslim countries to discuss the situation in Gaza, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The contact group was formed last month at a joint summit of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the fighting in Gaza. It includes officials from Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Palestinian Authority and the OIC.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden meanwhile told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday it was "critical" to protect civilians in Gaza and said much more aid must be allowed in.
Biden, who was speaking by telephone to Netanyahu for the first time since November 26, called for the creation of humanitarian corridors to "separate the civilian population from Hamas".
"The president emphasized the critical need to protect civilians and to separate the civilian population from Hamas including through corridors that allow people to move safely from defined areas of hostilities," the White House said in a statement.
The United States has strongly defended Israel's right to defend itself after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed while 138 people remain as hostages.
But the Biden administration says that too many Palestinian civilians are dying in Israel's attacks. The Hamas-run health ministry said the death toll had risen to 17,177 by Thursday.
It has also told Israel, which is now attacking southern Gaza following the breakdown of a shortlived truce last week, that numbers of casualties and displacements should not be as great as during its initial assault on the north.
As heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza's biggest cities on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel needed to do more.
"It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection," Blinken said during a press conference with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Thursday.
"There does remain a gap between... the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground."
The United States has also been pushing to get more aid into Gaza.
Biden welcomed Israel's decision to let more fuel in following the breakdown of a truce "but stressed that much more assistance was urgently required across the board," the White House said.
He also called on Hamas to allow the Red Cross access to hostages that the Palestinian militant group still holds.
Biden separately spoke to Jordan's King Abdullah II, as efforts continue to restore the short-lived truce that broke down last week, the White House said.
The two leaders agreed to work for a "durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East to include the establishment of a Palestinian state," it said.
