Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby on Saturday said that the bloc should review its peace proposals to Israel and its entire stance on the peace process in response to the conflict in Gaza.
Member states should “reconsider all past Arab initiatives on the peace process and review their stance on the process as a whole,” he told an Arab foreign ministers’ meeting.
Qatar’s prime minister earlier delivered a biting criticism of Arab League meetings, and called for a review of the pan-Arab body’s dealing with the Palestinian issue.
“Our meetings have become a waste of money and a waste of time,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani told Arab foreign ministers gathered to draw up a response to Israel’s attack on Gaza.
“We are meeting today and we will issue a statement. The statement will mean nothing,” he said.
“The whole situation needs a clear and honest review… We can’t keep giving hope without delivering,” Sheikh Hamad said.
Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 10 Palestinians, destroyed the headquarters of Hamas’ prime minister and blasted a sprawling network of smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, broadening a blistering four-day-old offensive against the Islamic militant group even as diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire appeared to be gaining steam.
Hamas officials said a building used by Hamas for broadcasts was bombed and three people were injured. The injured were from Al Quds TV, a Lebanon-based television channel. The building is also used by foreign news outlets including Germany’s ARD, Kuwait TV and the Italian RAI and others.
The Israeli military spokesman was not immediately aware of the strikes but said they were investigating.
In Egypt, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel would be held to account for the children killed. “Everyone must know that sooner or later there will be a holding to account for the massacre of these innocent children killed inhumanely in Gaza,” he said.
Erdogan, who had earlier met President Muhammad Mursi, has blamed Israel for the latest round of fighting around the Gaza Strip.
So far, six children have died in the violence, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.
A major South American trading bloc condemned the “disproportionate use of force” in Gaza, calling on Israel and the Palestinians to immediately halt the violence
MERCOSUR leaders expressed “their strongest condemnation of the violence taking place in Israel and Palestine,” said a statement released by Brazil.
–Courtesy:Arabnews