South African Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu on Thursday added his voice to worldwide condemnation on an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip which killed at least 18 Palestinian civilians, urging both sides to "stop the violence."

"We cannot, we dare not keep quiet in the face of the latest atrocity in Gaza City when about 20 civilians including about seven children were killed whilst sleeping by Israeli artillery," said Tutu, former South African Anglican archbishop.

"It is an outrage that cries out to heaven and we must condemn it unequivocally as we do to the atrocities committed by suicide bombers against Israeli civilians," he said in a statement.

Israeli tanks attacked a residential neighborhood in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza early Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, including eight children.

"We learned in South Africa that true security does not come from the barrel of a gun," said Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his opposition to apartheid rule in South Africa.

"True security for all happens when the fundamental and inalienable rights of all are respected," he said, urging both sides to stop the violence.

"Israelis and Palestinians can survive only together as citizens of free and sovereign states, can ultimately prosper only together as citizens of such free and sovereign states," he said.

"We appeal in the name of the God who is biased in favor of the weak and the voiceless ones," he added.

The South African government on Wednesday also blamed Israel of violating international law and the Geneva Convention for shelling the town in Gaza Strip, and expressed its concern over the United Nations Security Council's failure to "act timeously and decisively" towards the incident.

Source: Xinhua