The Gaza Conference concluded Friday at Ayasofya Mosque with an Istanbul Declaration in which scholars from over 50 countries affirmed support for Palestinians’ right to resist Israeli occupation.
The declaration—issued after eight days of deliberations by around 200 scholars and religious leaders from over 50 countries around the world—rejected efforts to delegitimise the Palestinian armed struggle.
“We are absolutely against the weaponisation of resistance. We reject all efforts to give up resistance, which is the legitimate right of the Palestinian people,” it said.
Delegates travelled by sea from Democracy and Freedom Island to Ayasofya Grand Mosque for Friday prayers, where Ali Erbas, head of Türkiye’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) President Ali Muhyiddin al-Qaradaghi, and Nasrullah Hacimuftuoglu, president of the Foundation for Islamic Scholars in Türkiye, delivered their opening speeches and the final declaration.
Al-Qaradaghi read the declaration in Arabic, while Hacimuftuoglu read it in Turkish.
Collective obligation
The declaration opened with a Quranic verse granting the oppressed the right to retaliate, framing Gaza’s plight as a collective obligation: “The Gaza issue is no longer just a local issue but a religious and human responsibility.”
Organisers said the conference was convened in response to “continuous massacres in Gaza” and international inaction.
Qaradaghi described it as a revival of Hilf al-Fudul, an ancient alliance for justice: “An effective step has been taken to stop the attacks and to bring the criminals to justice.”
The Istanbul Declaration outlined measures for political, humanitarian, and legal mobilisation, which included:
- Establishing committees to engage heads of state and monitor the implementation of outcomes.
- Allocating a minimum of 2 percent of annual profits from Muslim-owned financial and economic institutions to Gaza aid, through “legal and transparent mechanisms.”
- Demanding that all political and commercial cooperation with Israel be immediately terminated, declaring: “Companies that support Zionism and cooperate directly or indirectly with Zionist companies should not buy their products.”
- Calling on border states to open crossings to Gaza and urging global participation in sea convoys to break the blockade.
Legal accountability
The declaration urged prosecutions of war crimes both internationally and domestically:
“The perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity should be prosecuted immediately.
Islamic countries, as well as all free-willed states, should immediately prosecute war criminals in their own countries.
It also urged Western governments, particularly the US, to withdraw support for Israel, calling for "a humane and ethical stance against the war crimes committed in Gaza."
While the conference officially ended on Friday, scholars insisted it was a launch rather than a conclusion.
“Today, we do not declare the closing of the Islamic and Humanitarian Responsibility: Gaza Conference. On the contrary, we declare the beginning of the work of this conference,” the declaration said.
Islamic and Humanitarian Responsibility: Gaza
The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and the Foundation for Islamic Scholars in Türkiye jointly organised the conference, titled Islamic and Humanitarian Responsibility: Gaza. It brought together more than 150 scholars and representatives from over 50 countries to discuss Israel's ongoing war in Gaza as well as the Muslim world's overall response.
The event began on August 22 with prayers at Istanbul's Eyup Sultan Mosque and continued on Democracy and Freedom Island from Saturday to Thursday, with a series of workshops on humanitarian aid, political mobilisation, and alliance building.
On the final day, delegates sailed to the Ayasofya Mosque for the closing session, during which the Istanbul Declaration was announced as the conference's final communique.
