Cairo, November 20 (RHC)-- The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has vehemently denounced the widespread atrocities and crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupation as the regime presses ahead with its genocidal war against the besieged Gaza Strip.

The 57-member international organization condemned the latest attacks on two schools, where civilians had sought refuge to avoid the intensified onslaught of the Israeli military on Gaza, calling them a "heinous crime" and "barbaric actions."

"We condemn the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation by targeting al-Fakhoura and Tal al-Zaatar schools in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in hundreds of casualties, including dead and wounded," the OIC said in a statement published on Sunday.

"The continuation of this brutal behavior in the Gaza Strip, which makes no distinction whatsoever between schools, medical institutions and military facilities, demonstrates the Israeli occupation's persistence on violating all international laws and norms, and disdaining the emerging positions around the globe against these barbaric actions which have become a disgrace to humanity," it added.

On Saturday, more than 200 Palestinians were killed and injured in an Israeli bombing of the UNRWA-affiliated Al-Fakhoura School, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, shortly before another school, Tal Al-Zaatar School, in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, was targeted with another bombing.

Elsewhere in the statement, the OIC censured Israeli crimes in the al-Shifa Hospital, including forcible evacuation of the citizens, the sick, the wounded, and the medical staff, and its conversion into a closed military barracks, saying that is a “continuation of the ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by the Israeli regime.”

Moreover, the international body criticized Israeli warplanes for targeting a residential building in Balata Refugee Camp, in the east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, considering that as an extension of the ongoing violations of international humanitarian law by the illegal entity.

The organization expressed concern about the escalation of attacks and organized terrorism by Israeli forces and settlers, which led to the killing of thousands of Palestinians.

The OIC reiterated its plea to the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to fulfill its obligations. They urged for an “immediate and comprehensive” cessation of this brutal Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Strip-based Palestinian resistance groups of Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 13,000 Palestinians, including more than 5,000 children, have so far been killed. About 30,000 people have been also injured.  Since October 7, the Israeli occupation has also claimed the lives of more than 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.