Online Desk : Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani urged the international community on Sunday to punish Israel for what he described as its “crimes.” Photo: File/AP

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani urged the international community on Sunday to “stop using double standards” and punish Israel for what he described as its “crimes”, reports Arab News.

He was speaking at a preparatory meeting on the eve of an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic leaders organized by Qatar after Israel carried out an unprecedented air strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.

“The time has come for the international community to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed, and Israel needs to know that the ongoing war of extermination that our brotherly Palestinian people is being subjected to, and whose aim is to expel them from their land, will not work,” the prime minister said.

The preparatory meeting of foreign ministers for the emergency joint Arab-Islamic summit commenced on Sunday in Doha under Sheikh Mohammed’s leadership.

The summit is to discuss a draft statement regarding the Israeli attack on Qatar on Sept. 9, which targeted the residences of several Hamas officials in Doha, according to the Qatar News Agency.

The airstrikes, which left several dead and wounded, were widely condemned across the Arab and Islamic world as a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and international law.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member states are attending the summit on Sunday, including Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denounced the Israeli attack as an “aggressive act” and reiterated the Kingdom’s solidarity with Doha, stressing the need for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its actions, the Saudi Press Agency reported.