RIYADH  -  Saudi Arabia has de­cided to put normaliza­tion with Israel “on ice” amid the Israel-Hamas war, news agencies re­ported at the week­end, citing anonymous sources familiar with Riyadh’s thinking.

Two sources told Re­uters that there would be a delay in the US-bro­kered talks. Senior US of­ficials have already pub­licly acknowledged that the shock Hamas on­slaught last Saturday has derailed the normalisa­tion effort, even if they’re “not abandoning it.”

AFP was given a simi­lar message by a source of its own on Saturday.

Hamas launched a large-scale terrorist on­slaught on Israel on Oc­tober 7 that killed more than 1,300 people, most of them civilians, spark­ing a fierce Israeli re­sponse ahead of a po­tential Israeli ground invasion of the territory.

Analysts have posit­ed that one of Hamas’s goals in its assault was to block the normal­ization effort with Sau­di Arabia, a major pow­er in the region. Hamas launched a large-scale terrorist onslaught on Israel on October 7 that killed more than 1,300 peo­ple, most of them civilians, sparking a fierce Israe­li response ahead of a potential Israeli ground inva­sion of the territory. Analysts have posited that one of Hamas’s goals in its assault was to block the nor­malization effort with Saudi Arabia, a major power in the region. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held his first-ever call with Iranian Pres­ident Ebrahim Raisi earlier this week, as the two countries continue their own normalization pro­cess. On Saturday Saudi Arabia called an urgent meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member bloc of Mus­lim countries. The OIC said in a statement that the meeting would “address the escalating military situ­ation in Gaza and its environs as well as the deterio­rating conditions that endanger the lives of civilians and the overall security and stability of the region.”

The meeting will take place on Wednesday in Jeddah. The reports come as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Riyadh on his Middle East shuttle diplomacy tour.

Saudi Arabia in the weeks before the attacks had spoken of progress in US-led diplomacy to nor­malize relations with Israel — which would be a landmark step for the conservative kingdom that is guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.

But Riyadh has voiced increasing disquiet about the fate of Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where Israel has launched thousands of strikes and ordered the evacuation of the terri­tory’s north as it seeks to smash Hamas, prompt­ing thousands to flee.