A new group of high-ranking officials from several Muslim countries will visit the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to seek an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Foreign, Reuters reports.

The group was formed earlier this month at a summit of the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh. It included foreign ministers and representatives of Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Secretary General of the OIC.

The source said the group began talks with the permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France – with a visit to Beijing on Monday, as well as other countries.

“The main task of the contact group is to announce a ceasefire as soon as possible and send humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the source said.

“The (group’s) ultimate goal is to promote a two-state solution within internationally accepted parameters so that Palestinians can live in their own country in security, stability and prosperity,” the person added.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is based outside Gaza, told Reuters on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was nearing a cease-fire deal with Israel, even as Israel’s assault on Gaza continues and rockets are fired at Israel.

Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, the bloodiest in Israel’s 75-year history, prompted an Israeli airstrike and invasion of Gaza. The campaign has killed at least 13,000 Palestinians, many of them children and women, and led to calls for a ceasefire or humanitarian truce.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan did not participate in the Beijing leg of the tour and will also miss the group’s trip to Moscow on Tuesday as President Tayyip Erdogan is visiting Algeria, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said. external.

Fidan announced on Monday that he will join the next stages of the tournament. He told Al Jazeera at the end of the week that Muslim countries had decided for now to use “all available diplomatic and humanitarian means” to end the fighting in Gaza.

He said that Israeli attacks on the enclave must be stopped at the UN and other platforms through the efforts of like-minded countries.

The group will meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday during their visits to Britain and France, the source said.