CAIRO
The United Arab Emirates late on Monday called for the formation of a fact-finding commission to investigate what it called Israeli "crimes" against civilians in the Gaza Strip.
"The United Arab Emirates strongly denounces aggressive Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories," Emirati State Minister Abdullah bin Mohammed Gobash said.
"The people who commit these military crimes must be brought to international justice," he added at an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
He called on Israel to "immediately" suspend the targeting of civilians and collectively punishing the Palestinian people.
Tension has been running high in the Palestinian territories since Israel launched a deadly offensive on Gaza last Monday with the stated aim of halting rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.
At least 187 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1300 others injured in unrelenting Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since the operation began last Monday.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire rockets at Israeli cities in response to the ongoing Israeli attacks.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.
By Salah Gomaa
www.aa.com.tr/en
