The Saudi foreign minister has said that international efforts towards a ceasefire have been “wholly insufficient”.

“We are now well beyond 33,000 civilians killed. We are now actively discussing the potential for famine In Gaza,” he said while speaking at Islamabad, adding that people are starving to death because humanitarian assistance is not getting to them

“This is an unacceptable situation,” he said.

“It is a complete failure of the international system and systems of international law,” he said.

“There is no justification for the restriction of humanitarian aid in entering Gaza,” he said, adding that despite two UN Security Council resolutions, “we have not seen sufficient data entering”.

“We have finally now started to see a turnaround in the issue of aid. Unfortunately, that happened after six Western aid workers were killed by Israel, but it didn’t happen after 33,000 Palestinians were killed,” he said while calling out the “double standards” of Western powers.

“It is our position that de-escalation must be everybody’s priority […] and we will do everything we can to push in that direction,” he said.