DEARBORN – Arab American organizations called the community to action on Saturday in condemning and demanding and end to Israeli airsrikes on Gaza that began Saturday, killing more than 280 as of Sunday afternoon.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest near the Israeli Embassy in London December 28, 2008, against the Israeli strikes on Gaza. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

The Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO) announced plans for a human chain demonstration to be formed along Warren Avenue in Dearborn on Tuesday, December 30, beginning at 4 p.m. at the corner of Warren and Chase Road. A meeting for community leadership is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 29, 6 p.m. at the Lebanese American Heritage Club, 4337 Maple Road in Dearborn.

A memorial service for those killed in the raid is scheduled to follow the Tuesday protest at Byblos Banquet Hall, 7258 Chase Road in Dearborn.

“We call on the current and the incoming U.S. presidential administrations to take immediate action to prevent any more deaths of innocent civilians by starvation and by bombing,” said CAAO spokesman Osama Siblani – who is publisher of The Arab American News. “The United States stands alone in the world in its unconditional support of Israeli aggression and genocide, and that is inexcusable. The economic seige should be lifted now, adequate food and fuel allowed in to warm and feed the people and all military aggression against this civilian population stopped immediately.”

A Palestinian boy is carried to al-Shifa hospital following an Israel air strike in Gaza December 28, 2008. Israel launched air strikes on Gaza for a second successive day on Sunday, piling pressure on Hamas after 229 people were killed in one of the bloodiest 24 hours for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) called on the U.S. and the international community to take “immediate action to pressure Israel to end its attacks and stop the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

The group issued an “action alert,” asking the public to contact elected officials and President-elect Barack Obama to demand they put pressure on Israel to end the airstrikes.

“An immediate suspension of hostilities on all sides is necessary to reinstate the ceasefire,” the ADC release read. “Further, the collective punishments of the population of Gaza will not likely lead to security for Israelis. According to numerous surveys, similar attacks in the past have only served to garner more support to the extremist elements of Hamas and renewed rocket attacks on Israel.”

To contact elected officials through ADC, click here.

To contact Obama, asking him to issue a statement calling for an end to hostilities, click here.

The UN Security Council on Sunday urged an immediate end to all military activities and called on all parties to address the humanitarian crisis in the territory, according to an Agence France-Presse report.

The non-binding statement by the 15-member body “called for an immediate halt to all violence” and urged the parties “to stop immediately all military activities.”

In a rare example of council unity over the divisive issue of Gaza, the text was approved after five hours of closed-door consultations called by Libya, the lone Arab member of the council, in response to the Israeli air raids.

Israeli warplanes widened their sights on Sunday, according to an Associated Press report.

The Israeli military said warplanes attacked 40 tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border in the course of four minutes Sunday. Medics said two people were killed and 25 were injured. Witnesses reported large fires and dozens of explosions. Black smoke rising from the area of the attacks was especially dense closer to the Mediterranean, apparently after missile struck a makeshift underground fuel pipeline.

Weapons and commercial goods are brought in through the passageways, relieving shortages caused by the blockade Israel and Egypt imposed after the Hamas takeover.

Shortly after the tunnel attacks, crowds of Gazans, backed by a bulldozer, breached the border wall with Egypt and poured across the frontier to escape the chaos. Egyptian security officials said a border officer was killed in clashes with Palestinian gunmen.

Israel‘s Cabinet authorized the military to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers for a possible ground invasion and moved tanks, infantry and armored units to the Gaza border.

Syria, reflecting the rage in the Arab world over Israel‘s aerial onslaught, broke off indirect peace talks with the Jewish state.

The civilian casualties included a 15-year-old boy who died in southern Gaza on Sunday in an attack on a greenhouse near the border. At least 644 people were wounded, said a Gaza health official..

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it was unclear when the operation would end. The situation in southern Israel “is liable to last longer than we are able to foresee at this time,” he told his Cabinet.

Israel‘s foreign minister Tzipi Livni told “Meet the Press” that Israel launched its strike because Gaza‘s Hamas rulers were smuggling weapons and building up “a small army.”

“Our goal is not to reoccupy the Gaza Strip,” she said.

Israeli soldiers and settlers left the tiny seaside territory in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, though Israel retained control of Gaza‘s borders.