Cairo: The League of Arab Council, at the level of permanent representatives, called on the international community to take immediate action, in accordance with international humanitarian law, to halt the Israeli aggression, recognize the catastrophe and famine in the Gaza Strip, and break the blockade imposed on the Strip.
The Council also affirmed its full commitment to Palestinian sovereignty over the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surroundings in the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank, and its complete rejection of any attempts to change the status quo.
In resolutions issued at the conclusion of its extraordinary session, held on Tuesday at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League in Cairo, the Council of the League of Arab States condemned Israel, the illegal occupying power, for transforming the Gaza Strip into a famine zone, subjecting the Palestinian people to deadly conditions, and using starvation as a weapon of war and a form of genocide against the Palestinian people.
The Council stressed the need to ensure the delivery of humanitarian, relief, and medical aid to the Gaza Strip and to activate international accountability mechanisms for Israeli crimes.
The Council also underlined the importance of implementing the resolutions of the Arab and Islamic Summits to end the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, impose the entry of Arab, Islamic, and international humanitarian relief convoys, allow international organizations to enter the Gaza Strip, protect their staff, and enable them to fully carry out their roles, as well as support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The Council called on the international community, especially the United States of America, to pressure Israel, the illegal occupying power, to open all crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian and medical aid, to save thousands of children, women and the elderly, and to immediately and unconditionally stop the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
The Council condemns and categorically rejects the work of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and any other similar mechanism, considering it a mechanism devoid of legal and moral legitimacy and used as a "humanitarian cover" for aggressive policies that transform aid into a tool of repression, death traps, and starvation against the civilian population.
It holds the sponsors fully legally responsible for the crimes committed through it.
The Council considers the aggressive policies and practices of the Israeli occupation, which aim to displace and deport the Palestinian people from their land, subject them to forced transfer and ethnic cleansing, and create expelling living conditions for the population through widespread destruction, collective punishment, starvation, and the denial of access to food, water, medicine, and humanitarian and relief aid, to be a form of the crime of genocide, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Council condemned the Israeli occupation forces' targeting of Islamic and Christian places of worship, and the recent attack on the Latin Church in Gaza City, which resulted in a number of deaths, injuries, and extensive damage to the church building.
This constitutes a deliberate targeting of places of worship, hospitals, schools, and shelters.
The Council also condemned Israel, the occupying power, for continuing to take economic, financial, and punitive measures against the State of Palestine, including the withholding of tax funds, in a clear attempt to undermine the work of the Palestinian government and paralyze its ability to fulfill its obligations towards the Palestinian people.
The Council called for the immediate release of Palestinian tax funds and the provision of an urgent, transparent financial safety net, in accordance with agreed-upon mechanisms, enabling the State of Palestine to carry out its vital duties towards its people.
The Council welcomed the statement issued on July 21, 2025 by 28 countries, including 21 member states of the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, Norway, and New Zealand, regarding the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
It included a clear demand to end the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, immediately halt the policy of genocide, end the policy of systematic starvation, ensure accountability for perpetrators of crimes against the Palestinian people, and impose sanctions on the Israeli occupation, its leaders, and the terrorist settler militias.
In this context, it stressed the need for immediate recognition of the State of Palestine as a legal and moral step that contributes to protecting the rights of the Palestinian people.
The Council affirmed its solidarity with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and other officials from international organizations who are facing increasing pressure and harassment as a result of their support for the Palestinian people and their exposure of the crimes of genocide committed by Israel, the occupying power.
It called on the international community to continue its field efforts to lift the blockade imposed by Israel, the occupying power, on the Gaza Strip and commended the efforts of civil society in this regard.
The Council requested the two non-permanent Arab members of the Security Council, Algeria and Somalia, to continue working to hold an emergency session of the Security Council and demand the issuance of a resolution obligating Israel to end the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and allow the entry of humanitarian aid.
It also requested the Arab League missions and the Arab Ambassadors Councils to convey the contents of this resolution to their respective capitals.
The attendees called for the Council to remain in session and requested the Secretary-General of the Arab League to work to implement the provisions of this resolution and submit a report on this matter to the next session of the Arab League Council.
Regarding the Israeli occupation government's plans to strip the Hebron Municipality of its powers over the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surroundings in the Old City, the Arab League Council affirmed its absolute rejection of any attempts to change the status quo at the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surroundings in the Old City, undermine freedom of access to it and the call to prayer there, and attempt to desecrate it, alter its features, and separate it from its Palestinian surroundings.
The Council held the Israeli occupation forces responsible for their attacks and fully adhered to Palestinian sovereignty over the mosque and its surroundings, considering it an Islamic endowment administered by the Ministry of Islamic Endowments.
It considered the attempt to Judaize it part of the Israeli occupation's policy to impose control over it.
It called on the international community to defend and implement its decisions.
In this regard, it noted UNESCO's decision to inscribe the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Old City of Hebron on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2017, stressing that what is happening now is a violation of this decision.
The participants affirmed that Israel, the occupying power, has no sovereignty over Palestinian land or heritage sites.
They also emphasized that this illegal Israeli plan would represent an unprecedented step in the occupation's ongoing efforts to alter the original character of the site and obliterate the true, authentic identity of the Palestinian people and their rights to the historic site as its exclusive sovereign.
This would have serious repercussions for all religious sanctities and the stability of the entire region.
They emphasized the need to adhere to the resolutions signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli occupation in 1997, which stipulated that the administration of the Ibrahimi Mosque would remain in the hands of the Hebron Municipality.
The Council condemned all practices by the Israeli occupation and settlers aimed at controlling large parts of the city of Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque, imposing radical colonial changes to its historical and legal reality, and denying Palestinian citizens access to it.
They called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations to find effective means to protect Palestinian civilians in the city of Hebron.
The Council also stressed the need to dispatch an urgent UN monitoring mission to the city of Hebron, in accordance with previous World Heritage Committee resolutions, and to assess the seriousness of this step.
It emphasized the need to restore the work of the international mission tasked with monitoring and documenting Israeli violations in the city of Hebron, particularly the Ibrahimi Mosque.
It also called on the UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of religion and human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories to document this violation.
The Council requested the Arab League missions and the Arab Ambassadors' Councils to convey the contents of this resolution to their respective capitals. They also requested that the Council remain in session and request the Secretary-General of the Arab League to work on implementing the resolution and submit a report on this matter to the next session of the Arab League Council.
