Politics

Arab League chief demands end to Gaza military operations

Reeling from the deadliest attack in its history, Israel unleashed a relentless bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip that has flattened neighbourhoods and killed at least 2,750 people.

AFP 2023/10/17 08:30

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit attends an Arab League extraordinary meeting, Cairo on Oct. 11, 2023. (Photo: Khaled Desouki/AFP)

Middle East Gaza Arab League

The Arab League chief demanded Monday an end to military operations in the Gaza Strip and charged that the siege of the enclave is "depriving the Palestinians of their humanity".

"We demand the immediate end of military operations and the opening of safe corridors to bring aid to the population," Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said during an Arab justice ministers meeting in Baghdad.

Israel declared war on the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas a day after waves of its militants broke through Gaza's heavily fortified border on October 7, shooting, stabbing and burning to death more than 1,400 people.

Reeling from the deadliest attack in its history, Israel unleashed a relentless bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip that has flattened neighbourhoods and killed at least 2,750 people.

Aboul Gheit said Israel's total siege of Gaza which has cut off water, food, electricity and fuel, was "depriving the Palestinians of their humanity and paving the way for ethnic cleansing".