CAIRO, Dec 8: The Arab League on Sunday renewed appeals for an international presence to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip following what it called a “barbaric Israeli raid” that left 10 people dead.

“The barbaric Israeli raid on the Bureij refugee camp, which killed ten Palestinians, including two UNRWA staff, turned the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday into a collective funeral,” League spokesman Hisham Yussef said in a statement.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which runs the camp, said two of its employees were among the dead and it would investigate the attack that occurred as Muslims celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramazan.

“These aggressive Israeli practices show that the only solution is that the international community ensures an immediate international protection for the Palestinian people,” Yussef added.

“It is time the Israeli occupation realizes its practices will not lead to an end of the resistance and that it will only be possible to bring calm by returning to a political process, on the basis of serious and reciprocal commitments,” the spokesman said.

The Palestinian Authority denounced the “massacre” at Bureij and urged the main international players in the Middle East, the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union, “to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people.”

woman shot dead: A Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli fire in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Sunday evening, Palestinian medical sources said.

Naela Aqel, 41, was killed inside her house when a tank open fired with machineguns in the impoverished town which lies hard on the border with Egypt, they said.—AFP