Saudi crown prince demands Gaza, Lebanon ceasefires at Arab summit

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler called for immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon at a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit on Monday.

Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Riyadh, more than a year into the Israel-Hamas war and regional escalation, in what is seen as a chance to send a message to US president-elect Donald Trump.

Opening the summit, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the international community must "immediately halt the Israeli actions against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon", condemning Israel's campaign in Gaza as "genocide".

Saudi Arabia "affirms its support for the brothers in Palestine and Lebanon to overcome the disastrous humanitarian consequences of the ongoing Israeli aggression," he said.

A draft resolution for the summit stresses "firm support" for "national rights" for the Palestinian people, "foremost among which is their right to freedom and to an independent, sovereign state".

Just hours earlier, newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was not "realistic" to establish a Palestinian state, dismissing it as a "Hamas state".

"I don't think this position is realistic today and we must be realistic," Saar said in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned that the country was suffering an "existential" crisis and hit out at countries meddling in its internal affairs — a thinly veiled swipe at Iran.

Countries should stop "interfering in its internal affairs by supporting this or that group, but rather support Lebanon as a state and entity", Mikati said.

The Saudi foreign ministry announced plans for the summit in late October during a meeting, also in Riyadh, of a new "international alliance" to press for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Trump's election last week for a second term in the White House is likely to be on the leaders' minds, said Anna Jacobs, senior Gulf analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.

"This summit is very much an opportunity for regional leaders to signal to the incoming Trump administration what they want in terms of US engagement," she said.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed more than 43,600 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.