Libya on Saturday called on Arabs to halt what it called an Israeli military campaign aimed at "wiping out the Palestinian people".

Israel killed 36 Palestinians on Saturday in its deepest incursion into the Gaza Strip since pulling out in 2005, stoking fears of a broader conflict that could derail renewed U.S.-backed peace talks.

At least 71 Palestinians have been killed in four days of Israeli air strikes and raids in the Hamas-controlled territory.

"What Israel is doing in Gaza confirms that the so-called peace process in the Middle East is a deliberate ploy to cover up a continuing campaign to wipe out the Palestinian people," Libya's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"This bloody Israeli campaign had laid bare the reality of the aims of the Zionists and their disdain of the so-called peace initiatives," the statement, carried by the official news agency Jana, added.

"Libya calls on Arabs to take an urgent position to stop the Zionist machine of mass killing and muster political and material support to rescue the sons of the Palestinian people from this Zionist shoah," the Libyan ministry said.

"Libya also calls on the international community to shoulder their responsibility to halt this mass killing."

The Israel deputy defence minister has warned Gazans they risked a "shoah" if the rocket fire does not stop. The word "shoah" is rarely used in Israel beyond discussions of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews but government spokesmen said Matan Vilnai had employed the word only to mean "disaster"

Reuters

Güncelleme Tarihi: 01 Mart 2008, 19:35