Palestine calls Arab League extraordinary meeting to discuss Gaza war, Israeli settlement building

By Awad Rajoub

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestine called an extraordinary meeting of the Arab League to discuss Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip and settlement expansion in the West Bank.

“The meeting will be held at the level of permanent delegates this week to discuss confronting the Israeli crimes of genocide and colonial expansion in the West Bank,” Palestinian delegate Mohannad al-Aklouk told the official news agency Wafa.

There was no confirmation of the meeting by the pan-Arab organization.

On Thursday, the Israeli government approved steps proposed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to "legalize" settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank and impose sanctions on the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

Settlement outposts are small communities established by illegal Israeli settlers on privately owned Palestinian land without approval from the Israeli government.

International law regards both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.

Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 37,800 victims since Oct. 7, 2023.

At least 554 Palestinians have since been killed including 133 children and nearly 5,300 injured by Israeli army fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi