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Thursday 17 July 2014 - 06:21

Arab League seeks help for Gaza

Story Code : 399926
Arab League seeks help for Gaza
The call, in a report to be submitted to the ministerial meeting, comes as Israel pressed its campaign of punishing raids on Gaza into a seventh day Monday, and the Palestinian death toll rose to more than 170, with another 1,230 wounded.

The Arab League "affirmed the necessity of urgent steps for an immediate end to the Israeli aggression on Gaza and providing protection for the Palestinians," the report said.

Israeli "air strikes on Gaza have become a matter that cannot be met with silence anymore," it said.

The pan-Arab organization "demands that the international community intervene through its legal and humanitarian institutions to protect the Palestinian people."

The call echoes a demand by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is based.

The Arab League meeting comes amid intense international efforts to broker a truce, and with Abbas seeking U.N. intervention.

The Arab response has been lacklustre compared with its reaction to an eight-day war in 2012, when it sent Arab ministers to visit the besieged enclave in a show of support.
An Egyptian foreign ministry statement said Monday's meeting, due to begin at 1900 GMT, "is aimed at finding a solution to stop the shedding of Palestinian civilians' blood and to formulate a common Arab stance on the issue."

World leaders have been in contact with Egyptian officials, including President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, to discuss ways of ending the latest conflict.

Critics of Saudi Arabia have argued that King Abdullah’s $200 million donation to Palestine cannot make up for the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim policies the kingdom has run.

As Saudi Arabia appears ever more hypocritical towards the Arab people and more openly supportive of Zionists, many in the Middle East have come to profoundly abhor Al Saud and what they represent.
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