Muslim Bloc Urges U.N. to Halt Gaza Bloodshed

The world's largest Muslim bloc Thursday urged the UN Security Council to force a halt to Israel's air war on Gaza that has killed more than 80 Palestinians in three days.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, after a meeting of its executive committee in the Saudi city of Jeddah, said it was forming a ministerial team to lobby the Security Council and international community "to halt the Israeli aggression".

The 57-member OIC said it would also push for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva to investigate "the crimes of occupying power Israel and its violations of the rights of Palestinians".

"Israel has violated all international and human conventions," charged the Saudi secretary of state for foreign affairs, Nizar Abid, who chaired the Jeddah meeting.

In New York, meanwhile, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon appealed for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants.

"It is now more urgent than ever to try to find common ground for a return to calm and a ceasefire understanding," he told an emergency meeting of the Security Council.

Ban said all parties, including Palestinian armed groups, must respect international law.

In the worst confrontation since 2012, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Gaza over three days, killing more than 80 Palestinians, in the face of cross-border rocket fire by militant groups.

There have been no Israeli deaths so far, but waves of rockets fired at central Israel have triggered sirens in cities as far from Gaza as Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa.