Foreign Ministers from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries will hold an emergency meeting on the Palestine issue in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea resort of Jeddah on Saturday.

The OIC said in a statement that the meeting will discuss the repercussions of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, especially the recent massacre in the northern Gaza area of Beit Hanoun.

The foreign ministers will also discuss means to extend the necessary support to the Palestinians and a coordinated Islamic stance on the Israeli massacre, said the statement.

The coordination of the Islamic stance is important for bringing pressure to bear on Israel so as to compel it to put an end to its repeated aggressions and abide by international legitimacy resolutions, the statement stressed.

The meeting comes after the United States vetoed last Saturday an Arab-sponsored UN Security Council draft resolution which sought to condemn the deadly Israeli attack in Gaza and urge an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from there.

The Israeli artillery barrage ripped through a cluster of houses in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun at dawn last Wednesday, killing 19 civilians, mostly women and children.

The attack was the deadliest on Palestinian civilians in the past several years, prompting a wave of strong censure across the Arab world and the international community.

On Nov. 12, Arab foreign ministers also convened an extraordinary meeting issued a resolution calling for a peace conference to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The international community should shoulder responsibility and resume aids to the Palestinians, their taxes should be released and returned to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), said the resolution.

Source: Xinhua