Arab and Muslim ministers have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as their delegation visited Beijing on the first leg of a tour to push for an end to hostilities and to allow humanitarian aid into the territory, Reuters reports.

The delegation, which is set to meet officials representing the permanent members of the UN Security Council, is also piling pressure on the West to reject Israel’s justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defence.

The officials holding meetings with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi are from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, among others.

The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh this month also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate “war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing” in the Palestinian territories.