Geneva, May 21 (RHC)-- The health ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have stressed the need to end Israel's aggression in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights.

The health ministers made the remarks in a statement following a ministerial meeting of the NAM in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The ministers also urged member states and international agencies to stop the Israeli regime's constant aggression and the deterioration of the health situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan Heights by lifting its siege.

Parts of the Golan Heights have been under Israeli occupation since the 1960s. The Tel Aviv regime captured 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the territory during the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed the region in 1981.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967.

The Gaza Strip has been under Israel's blockade since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty. The people of Gaza are also grappling with repercussions of Israel's devastating offensive last summer, which left some 2,200 people dead and demolished buildings and structures.