Maldives has urged the international community to stop the brutal attacks of the Israel on Gaza.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives, Abdulla Shahid called for urgent action to ease the suffering of the Palestinian people while delivering his remarks during the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The summit was held on Saturday, to discuss the brutal Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.

The Foreign Minister is attending this summit as the Special Envoy of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. 

In his remarks, Foreign Minister Shahid strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli military aggression against the civilians of Palestine and stressed the need to establish an immediate ceasefire. He called on the international community to expend every effort in preventing the collective punishment of the people of Gaza, which is in contravention to international humanitarian law.

Reflecting on the worsening humanitarian situation, Minister Shahid called for support to ensure essential supplies such as food and medicine enters Gaza safely.

The Maldivian Minister further reiterated that the path to lasting peace and stability in Palestine, and the Middle East as a whole, lies in the establishment of an independent state of Palestine, based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel declared war on Palestine after Hamas launched a mass military operation into the territory of Israel on October 7 in response to Israeli violation of the Al Aqsa Mosque. Attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers have since spiked, with no intention of a ceasefire.

Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip, killing more than 11,000 Palestinians, half of them children.

Furthermore, Israel continues to target hospitals in Gaza from the air while their ground forces are surrounding several hospitals in the northern part of the besieged enclave.

As the Israeli military increases its operations in Gaza, tens of thousands of people have left the northern regions of the territory in recent days. However, Israeli forces continues to attack Rafah and other southern locations, leaving the strip without a safe area. More than 70 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now displaced.