MADRID, Sept 13, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Spain hosts a meeting Friday of ministers from Muslim and European countries aimed at advancing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The meeting will bring together members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza, which includes countries such as Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement, without giving details of who would take part.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will welcome participants at his official residence before the meeting takes place at the foreign ministry in central Madrid, hosted by his top diplomat Jose Manuel Albares.

The European Union's foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, will also take part in the talks, his office said in a separate statement.

"The ministerial gathering will advance the discussion on the need to reinforce the engagement of the international community on peace and security in the Middle East, and the challenge to create an international consensus on a way forward based on the two-state solution," the statement said.

Albares hosted a diplomatic meeting with the group in May in which participants discussed what steps could be taken to advance the two-state solution, which would create a state for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel.

Calls for the solution have grown since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which began with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel has responded with an offensive that has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Sanchez has been one of the staunchest critics in Europe of Israel's Gaza offensive since the start of the conflict.

Under his watch, Spain on May 28 along with Ireland and Norway formally recognised a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Earlier this month he announced that the first "bilateral summit between Spain and Palestine" would be held before the end of the year. He said he expected "several collaboration agreements between the two states" to be signed.