On Tuesday, official sources in Doha said that the Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani received a phone call from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asking him to hold an emergency Islamic summit to review the grave conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
According to the sources, the call between Sheikh Hamad and Arafat also dealt with the recent atrocities inflicted on the Palestinians by the Israeli massacres and the siege imposed on a number of Palestinian areas, Kuwait News Agency reported.
Sheikh Hamad is the current chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
Meanwhile, Senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath charged that Israel's alleged "massacre" of hundreds of Palestinians at Jenin refugee camp included between 60 and 70 summary executions.
"There were 60 or 70 executions," Shaath, the Palestinian Authority's international cooperation minister, told more than 100 delegates at the opening Tuesday of a two-day Cyprus-hosted UN conference on Middle East peace. "The massacre in Jenin is really horrible. It is a war crime."
"The Israeli army took six days to complete the masacre of Jenin and six days for a clean up," Shaath said. Last Wednesday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused the Israeli army of summarily executing eight Palestinian fighters who had given themselves up in Jenin.
But Shaath cautioned the actual toll number "would not be known till they dig up the buildings" destroyed there. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
