Gaza has become 'mass detention camp': Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Monday denounced Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying it had turned the Palestinian territory into a "mass detention camp".   

Israel last week arrested one third of the Palestinian cabinet and began a military offensive into the Gaza Strip to free a soldier abducted during a military operation by Palestinian militants.   

"Israeli policy avoids negotiating with the Palestinian side and intends to transform the areas the Israeli army withdraws from unilaterally into mass detention camps where Palestinians are blockaded and starved," a cabinet statement said.   

"By cutting off water, electricity and health supplies Israel adopts a policy of mass punishment," it added.    

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year but still occupies other territories seized in a 1967 Arab-Israeli war, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Gaza is geographically separated from those areas.    

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with King Abdullah which Saudi officials said would centre on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.