Muslim countries call on United States to put pressure on Israel to accept Gaza ceasefire

Several Arab and Islamic countries have called on the United States to play a "broader role" in pressuring Israel into accepting a ceasefire in the Gaza war, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

The call was made at a meeting in Washington between Qatari, Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Palestinian and Turkish foreign ministers with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

They are members of a ministerial committee formed by an emergency Arab-Islamic summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia last month to discuss the Gaza situation.

During their talks with Blinken, the officials expressed disappointment at the UN Security Council's failure to pass a resolution for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for humanitarian reasons after the US used its veto power, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

While 13 of the 15 members of the world body voted in favour on Friday, the US, Israel's key ally, vetoed the draft submitted by the United Arab Emirates. The United Kingdom abstained.

Members of the Arab-Islamic committee also renewed their "unified rejection" of the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza, an impoverished enclave of around 2.3 million people, and called for an "immediate and complete" ceasefire to protect civilians.

In the last 24 hours, Israeli attacks on Gaza claimed another 133 lives, according to the Health Ministry on Saturday.

A total of 71 dead and 160 injured were brought to the al-Aqsa Hospital, on top of 62 dead and around 100 injured taken to the Nasser Hospital, the authority announced on Saturday.

Most of the attacks took place in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian reports. Israeli ground troops are mainly deployed in the north and south of the coastal strip, supported by the air force.