The Arab League has called for a UN peacekeeping force in the Palestinian territories as well as an international peace conference at a summit in Bahrain that was dominated by the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. It also called for all Palestinian factions to come together under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) banner.
In a concluding statement following a meeting in Manama, the 22-member grouping called for “international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories” until a two-state solution is implemented.
It also adopted calls by host Bahrain’s King Hamad and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to “convene an international conference under the auspices of the United Nations, to resolve the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution”.
The meeting of Arab heads of state and government convened in Bahrain more than seven months into the conflict in Gaza that has shaken the wider region and threatened to spread.
Having made headway towards establishing ties with Arab states in the last number of years, Israel has become increasingly isolated in recent months due to the level of death and destruction it has wrought in Gaza, and especially over its plans to invade the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge.