Arab leaders attending the Cairo Summit for Peace rejected the forced dispossession of Palestinian people and called for international pressure to stop Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that force could not be used to remove Palestinians from their land.

“We will never accept relocation, we will remain on our land whatever the challenges,” he said.

Jordan’s King Abdullah also called forced dispossession a ‘war crime’ and strongly denounced the international silence on Israel’s attacks against Gaza.

“The message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones,” the king said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan also denounced the ‘selectivity’ of intrnational ators in condemning atrocities and called for actions to ‘bind’ Israel to humanitarian law.

“I call on the international community to press Israel to lift the siege of Gaza,” Farhan said.

Organised by Egypt, the summit brought together representatives of Arab states as well as multiple European foreign ministers. However, the United States only sent its chargé d’affaires in Cairo.

UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly said that his government had asked Israel to preserve civilian lives in Gaza.

“Despite the incredibly difficult circumstances, I have called for discipline and professionalism and restraint from the Israeli military,” he added.

France’s foreign minister called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that could lead to a ceasefire.

Israel has pounded Gaza with airstrikes after Hamas attacked it on October 7. After 1,400 Israeli deaths, above 4,000 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the densely populated strip.