The Arab League (AL) on Wednesday night called for sending peacekeeping troops to Palestinian territories to protect Palestinian people from Israeli attacks, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported on Thursday.

"We have been trying for the past two years to have peacekeepers sent to occupied Palestinian lands," Mohamed Sobeih, AL Assistant Secretary General for Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Affairs said in a statement.

Sobeih made the appeal a day after 19 Palestinians were killed and some dozens wounded by the Israeli army in a Gaza town.

He expressed his astonishment at the American double standards to call for sending UN troops to Darfur while ignoring Israel's vast destruction and aggression in the Gaza Strip, which are considered war crimes.

Some 100 Palestinians were killed and 500 were wounded, and 1, 500 others were captured by Israelis in the past three weeks, according to the AL official.

The report said that AL permanent delegates would hold an informal consultative meeting on Thursday to discuss the various Palestinian developments, especially the latest aggression and how to stop the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

The UN Security Council is also scheduled to hold an open meeting in the day to tackle latest developments in Palestinian territories.

On Wednesday morning, Israeli tank shells struck houses in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others, mostly children and women.

Early on Nov.1, Israeli army started a six-day large-scale operation, dubbed "Autumn Clouds", with dozens of Israeli army tanks, armored vehicles, bulldozers and fighter aircraft entering into Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials, however, declared that the operation is aimed at halting Qassam rocket fire on southern Israel.

Source: Xinhua