BEIRUT - The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah said Sunday the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip was a 'war crime and a genocide that requires immediate action from the international community and its institutions.'

Hezbollah in a statement said that the denunciation by the Arab League and Arab countries 'is no longer enough to cover the UN's shameful political stance, because allowing the siege of the Palestinian people to continue is tantamount to participation in it.'

The Arab countries should 'instead support [the Palestinian] people on all military and civil levels to make it more capable of facing this aggression.'

Hezbollah called on Arab countries to 'take a firm stand and exert its utmost efforts against the Israeli barbarism - which is covered by the US - and the international community to stop this ongoing massacre.'

Israel and Hezbollah engaged in 33-days of war in July-August 2006 after the Hezbollah fighters carried out rocket attacks and captured two soldiers in a cross-border raid from Lebanon. -DPA