OIC chief for action against 'state terror'

The southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh which was hit by Israeli air strikes yesterday top), and a Lebanese man stands next to empty coffins at a hospital in Tyre. The funerals of at least 95 civilians dead from the Qana bombing, due to take place yesterday in the port city, were postponed after the area remained heavily bombarded by the Israeli army. PHOTO: AFP

"Those offensives, which have claimed hundreds of civilian lives, destroyed the infrastructure of Lebanon and Palestine and violated all principles of international law ... qualify as war crimes," OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a Turkish national, told reporters here.

"What is being done has reached the level of state terror. This is an obvious crime against humanity and a war crime," he was quoted as saying by Anatolia.

In comments on an upcoming emergency summit of the OIC executive committee in Malaysia, Ihsanoglu said the 57-member organization is not empowered to impose international sanctions on Israel, but stressed that Muslim countries should put up firmer efforts to defuse the crisis.

"I wish that a clearer stance is demonstrated on this issue and that Islamic countries consider a package of more effective policies and measures at the United Nations," he said.

Ihansoglu also deplored what he called "the entire world's silence" over the killing of dozens of children in an Israeli strike on the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday and the UN Security Council's failure to issue an explicit condemnation of the raid and call for a ceasefire.