JEDDAH, Dec 28: The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Saturday strongly condemned Israel’s killings of Palestinians, accusing the Jewish state of attempting to torpedo all peace proposals.

Abdelwahid Belkeziz, secretary general of the 57-member pan-Islamic body, condemned the “daily killings by Israeli authorities in the occupied Palestinian territories despite a period of relative calm,” achieved with the help of Palestinians.

Belkeziz appealed to the international community and members of the diplomatic “quartet” on the Middle East — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — to “halt these (Israeli) aggressions and provide protection for the Palestinian people.”

He deplored the “Israeli government’s deliberate turning of the killing of Palestinians into a topic in the Israeli election campaign.”

Nine Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Thursday, most of them militants targeted by Israeli undercover squads, sparking a revenge attack by two Islamic Jihad gunmen on a Jewish settlement Friday which killed four Israelis. —AFP