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Leaders from Arab and Muslim countries will gather for an emergency summit in Doha on Monday, a week after Israel’s unprecedented strike on Hamas in Qatar prompted widespread anger.The joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit called by Qatar seeks to pile pressure on Israel, which has been facing mounting calls to end the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.Hamas says top officials survived last week’s air strike in Doha that killed six people and triggered a wave of criticism, including from US President Donald Trump.A draft final statement seen by AFP warned that “brutal Israeli aggression” put efforts to normalise relations between Israel and Arab states at risk.It “threatens all that has been achieved on the path toward establishing normal relations with Israel, including existing and future agreements”, the draft added.Israel and its main backer the United States have been trying to extend the Abraham Accords that established ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020.Last week’s attack and Israel’s “genocide (and) ethnic cleansing (in Gaza)… undermines the prospects of achieving peace and peaceful coexistence in the region”, the draft statement said.”The time has come for the international community to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed,” Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told a preparatory meeting at the weekend.Alongside Egypt and the United States, Qatar has led mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas in the war in Gaza.- ‘Actions, not just rhetoric’ -The nearly 60-country grouping in Doha will also emphasise “the concept of collective security… as well as the necessity of aligning together to face common challenges and threats”, according to the draft.Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, had left the kingdom for Qatar to attend the summit, state media said.Among the leaders gathering on Monday are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will also attend.An extraordinary meeting of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council would also be held in Doha on Monday, according to Saudi state media.The United Nations Human Rights Council said it would host an urgent debate on Tuesday on Israel’s air strike targeting Hamas in Qatar.Meanwhile US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is visiting Israel in a demonstration of Washington’s unwavering support.Aziz Algashian, a Saudi-based researcher into international relations in the Middle East, said “many people are looking at actions, not just rhetoric” from the meeting in Doha.”We’ve exhausted all forms of rhetoric. Now it’s just going to have to be actions — and we’ll see what those actions will be,” he said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday discussed the Gaza war with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar caused US unease and threatened to derail already flailing attempts to reach a ceasefire.Rubio scheduled a solidarity visit a week before a French-led summit at the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state, a prospect fervently opposed by Netanyahu’s right-wing government.But talks were made more difficult last week when President Donald Trump’s administration was caught off guard by an Israeli attack in Qatar against Hamas leaders who were meeting to discuss a new US ceasefire proposal for Gaza.Rubio met with Netanyahu one-on-one for about an hour and a half before starting an expanded meeting with aides, according to a US official.Rubio said he would speak to Netanyahu about Israeli military plans to seize Gaza City, the largest urban centre in the devastated territory, as well as the government’s talk of annexing parts of the occupied West Bank in hopes of precluding a Palestinian state.Rubio said Trump wants the Gaza war to be “finished with” — which would mean the release of hostages and ensuring Hamas is “no longer a threat”.Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed another 17 people on Monday, all but one in Gaza City, said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza civil defence agency.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.- ‘Eternal capital’ -The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the Israelis were pushing more residents into the already overcrowded Al-Mawasi, which lacks basics such as food and water and where disease is spreading.The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 64,871 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.Trump, for years a fervent defender of Netanyahu, on Sunday again voiced support for Qatar, which is home to the largest US air base in the region and has assiduously courted the US president, including by gifting a luxury jet.”Qatar has been a very great ally. Israel and everyone else, we have to be careful. When we attack people we have to be careful,” said Trump.But the United States has not joined European powers in pressing Israel to end the offensive, who fear it will aggravate the already severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where most of its 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once since the outbreak of the war.Despite the objections over the Qatar strike, Rubio opened the visit on Sunday with a highly symbolic show of support as he joined Netanyahu at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray.With Rubio at his side, Netanyahu said the Israel-US alliance has “never been stronger”.- Controversial tunnel -Rubio, a devout Catholic, later posted that his visit showed his belief that Jerusalem is the “eternal capital” of Israel.Until Trump’s first term, US leaders had shied away from such overt statements backing Israeli sovereignty over contested Jerusalem, which is also holy to Muslims and Christians.Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, in a sharp break with most of the world.Hamas called Rubio’s prayer stop a “blatant assault on the sanctity” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslim sacred site above, and a “flagrant violation of the historical and legal status quo in occupied Jerusalem”.Rubio separately is expected Monday to attend the inauguration of a tunnel for religious tourists that goes underneath the Palestinian neighourhood of Silwan to the holy sites.The project has stirred fears among Palestinian residents that it could further dilute their presence, allowing Israelis to bypass Palestinians and possibly putting at risk the physical foundations of their homes.Fakhri Abu Diab, 63, a community spokesman in Silwan, said Rubio should instead come to see homes, such as his own, that have been demolished by Israel in what Palestinians charge is a targeted campaign to erase them.”Instead of siding with international law, the United States is going the way of extremists and the far right and ignoring our history,” he said.Rubio played down the political implications, calling it “one of the most important archaeological sites in the world”.

China’s economy showed further signs of weakness last month, with key data Monday revealing factory output and consumption rising at their weakest pace for around a year.Beijing has struggled to fully reignite the world’s number two economy since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the once-booming property sector mired in a debt crisis and …

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