Arab League holds extraordinary meeting to discuss Israeli onslaught on Gaza

By Ibrahim al-Khazen

CAIRO (AA) – The Arab League held an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The meeting discusses Israel's continued war on Gaza and a US veto against a Palestinian application for full UN membership, Egypt’s state news agency MENA reported.

Wednesday’s meeting, held at the level of permanent delegates, was called by Palestine to discuss Israeli attacks in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

It came as Palestinians uncovered at least 334 bodies of people in a mass grave at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip.

The bodies were discovered after the Israeli army withdrew from Khan Younis on April 7 following a 4-month ground offensive in the city.

Israel has waged a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

At least 34,262 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,200 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul