"The massacres perpetrated by the Israeli government are a blatant violation of international laws and norms," OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement released by the 57-member organisation.

He accused Israel of "deliberately killing Palestinian civilians" and urged the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council to "act speedily to halt the ongoing Israeli aggression."

The Palestinian issue will take centre stage at an OIC summit in Senegal next month, Ihsanoglu said.

GCC secretary general Abdulrahman al-Attiyah also urged the international community and the Security Council, "especially the United States," to "rein in the Israeli aggression machine unleashed against unarmed Palestinians.

"It is as if (the deaths of) innocent Gaza residents who perished in the past six months as a result of Israel's policy of blockading and starving the Palestinian people was not sufficient to satisfy the Israeli forces' lust for murder," said Attiyah.

"They are now continuing their aggression against those innocent and unarmed people in full view of the whole world," he said in a statement carried by Saudi SPA news agency.

The GCC groups six pro-Western oil-rich Gulf Arab states.

GCC member Qatar also slammed Israel's "savage attacks" against the Palestinians.

"Israel is trying to drag the region into a cycle of violence in a bid to implement its plans aimed at thwarting any chances of peace" in the Middle East, a foreign ministry official told QNA news agency.

Israeli air raids have killed more than 30 Palestinians, including six children, since Wednesday.

Israeli officials say they are considering a major ground operation against Gaza to stop the firing of rockets by militants from the Hamas-run territory.