The Arab League decided Sunday to appeal to the United Nations to halt Israel's military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip that has claimed the lives of more than 69 Palestinians.
After talks at its Cairo headquarters, the League tasked Arab representatives in New York "to make an urgent appeal to the General Assembly and/or Security Council to halt Israel's continued war of extermination against the Palestinian people".
They will also call for international protection of the Palestinians "in line with the Geneva accords (on people living under occupation) and international laws".
Permanent representatives of the Arab League also urged the Middle East peace quartet that groups the United Nations with Washington, Moscow and the European Union "to live up to its responsibility and move rapidly to take a decisive stand to end the Israeli aggression".
The Palestinians are faced with "a serious humanitarian situation", they said, calling for aid organisations to provide emergency relief.
The Israeli army launched an operation in northern Gaza late on Tuesday that escalated a day later after a Palestinian rocket attack killed two children in the southern Israeli town of Sderot.