Egypt, Jordan and Iraq said Wednesday that stopping “Israeli aggression on Gaza” is needed to halt dangerous escalation in the region.
A joint statement following a meeting of the foreign ministers from the three countries also condemned Israel’s military action in Lebanon and said Israel is “pushing the region into an all-out war.”
The ministers also called on the U.N. Security Council and the international community to act to stop the war.
Israel has ramped up strikes targeting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, citing a need to enable residents of northern Israel to return to the homes they fled during a year of Hezbollah rocket attacks.
Hezbollah launched its campaign against Israel the day after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages.
Israeli ground attacks and airstrikes have killed at least 41,495 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its count.
Crews on Wednesday recovered the bodies of four people killed in Israeli strikes in and near a refugee camp in central Gaza.
Three bodies were recovered at the site of a strike that hit a vehicle near the camp. The fourth body was found in the rubble of a home in the camp where an airstrike killed a total of at least 11 people.
Hamas said in a statement Tuesday that it is expecting the United Nations to take “immediate action” to end the war in Gaza.
“We demand immediate action to stop the Israeli aggression and the war,” said the Hamas statement, which was directed at United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
But the Palestinian group also said it will not participate in new cease-fire talks. It said will not waver from its position “against entering new negotiations that would provide [Israel] with cover to continue its aggression.”
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are Iranian-funded groups designated by the U.S. and other countries as terrorist organizations that have vowed to destroy the Jewish state of Israel.
In remarks Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gaza "a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it."
Guterres told the opening of the annual United Nations General Assembly, "We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink. The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza."
Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
