Palestinian prime minister in Saudi Arabia for talks on Gaza war

ISTANBUL

Newly-appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa held talks on Tuesday with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan to discuss Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The meeting held in Mecca city marked the first visit for the Palestinian premier to the oil-rich kingdom since he took his post last month.

The two sides discussed efforts to reach an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

A new round of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel to reach a deal for a prisoner swap and cease-fire in Gaza started in Egypt on Sunday.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian territory since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed nearly 1,200 people.

Over 33,200 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 76,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now in its 186th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar