Arab states decided tonight to ask the UN Security Council to force Israel to implement resolutions that call on its withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
"In light of the continued serious situation in occupied Palestinian territories...that may drag the whole region to an all-out war...the Arab League foreign ministers ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution, based on Chapter 7, to force Israel to immediately and fully implement those resolutions, the ministers said in a statement.
Chapter Seven of the UN Charter envisages the use of sanctions, and even military force, to make countries comply with Security Council resolutions.
The ministers, winding up their one-day emergency meeting at the Cairo-based Arab League, also asked the Security Council to urgently debate the situation in Palestinian towns, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said.
"The time has come to put the whole file before the Security Council, asking it to apply Chapter Seven (of the U.N. Charter) because of the continued aggression and the major destruction that Israel is inflicting now on the Palestinian property and Palestinian cities and towns," Moussa told a news conference at the end of the meeting.
"We issued instructions [to Arab missions at the UN] to ask the Security Council to convene an urgent and immediate meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus in particular," he added.
Moussa said the ministers had learnt that about 100 Palestinians were killed in the two towns on today alone.
The ministers also called upon foreign countries, and particularly the United States, to end what they saw as bias towards Israel . They said such bias had encouraged Israel to threaten regional and world security and stability.