Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa on Friday condemned the Israeli "massacre" in the West Bank village of Beit Reema that reportedly left 9-20 people dead, and called on the international community to take measures to end such attacks.
The killing of "these Palestinian martyrs (in Beit Reema) and others before them over the past few days, by the Israeli forces during illegal incursions into the Palestinian territories ... should be an alarm bell for the international community," Moussa said in a statement, cited by AFP.
"The international community's silence and its unjustifiable apathy in dissuading the Israeli government is sparking great wrath across the Arab World," he said.
According to the Palestinians, an elite Israeli unit surprised security guards at small village and shot them while they were asleep.
The occupation forces remained in the village for less than 24 hours, barring rescues and journalists from entering. Reports said that some of the victims bled to death.
The head of Palestinian Preventive Security in the West Bank, Jibril Rjoub, told Al Jazeera satellite channel on Wednesday that the killings resembled the Kufr Qassem Massacre in the 1950, when dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israelis.
The death toll for the incursion was still unclear on Friday, but the Palestinian Authority said nine Palestinians had been killed. Previous reports said more than 20 were killed.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said in a statement faxed to Albawaba.com that 10 were killed in the attack.
Moussa called on the "international community to take the appropriate and necessary measures to put an end to these practices."
In the same statement, he called on the United States, the main peace-broker in the region and Israel's chief ally, "to firmly intervene for an end to Israeli aggression and guarantee an unconditional Israeli withdrawal from the (autonomous) Palestinian territories." - Albawaba.com
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