UNITED NATIONS — Even as member states feuded, the Organization of the Islamic Conference yesterday found a topic to unite around: expressing its solidarity with Gaza and denouncing Israel.

Rallying around the Palestinian Arab “resistance” in Gaza and the West Bank may also soothe internal discord that has threatened to derail a summit of Arab League heads of state and foreign ministers, scheduled to begin in two weeks in Damascus.

At an OIC summit in the Senegalese capital yesterday, the U.N. secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned Israel’s “disproportionate” use of force in Gaza, telling the meeting of leaders of Muslim countries that the United Nations rejected anti-Islamic discrimination and commending them for speaking out against the use of religion to justify violence. The State Department, meanwhile, released a report yesterday on anti-Semitism that said OIC members have used the United Nations to issue anti-Israeli “polemics” that serve to “demonize” Jews and Israelis.

A day after an elite Israel Defense Force unit killed four Islamic Jihad leaders in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, at least 30 rockets launched from Gaza fell yesterday on southern Israel. The resumption of full-fledged hostility after a short lull has quieted speculation in the last few days about a tacit cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Both sides have denied negotiating any such agreement.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it would not authorize government officials to be interviewed by Al Jazeera, saying the Qatar-based satellite TV network is inciting passions across the Arab world with graphic broadcasts from Gaza and the West Bank that are seen by Jerusalem as one-sided.

“The just and legitimate cause of Palestine remains at the heart of our concerns,” the new OIC chairman and host of the Dakar summit, President Wade of Senegal, told his guests. “I should like to tell our brothers and sisters of Palestine that your unity is the first priority of success,” he added. “Please unite.”

Mr. Ban opened his address at the meeting with a dire description of the “precarious” situation in the Middle East. “Israel’s disproportionate and excessive use of force has killed and injured many civilians, including children,” he said, condemning Israel’s actions and calling for them to end. Mr. Ban, who has been criticized at the United Nations as too pro-Israeli and pro-American, also added a condemnation of the rocket attacks against Israel, demanding their “immediate cessation.”

President al-Bashir of Sudan, who is feuding with neighboring Chad over the war in Darfur, skipped the summit yesterday, citing an unspecified ailment,

Sudan launched “several heavily armed columns” against Chad on Wednesday, President Déby said, according to the Associated Press. The two countries have accused each other of supporting anti-government rebel groups, though Messrs. Bashir and Déby signed a peace deal late last night committing both to implementing past, failed deals to end violence in the region, the AP reported.

Internal disputes have also threatened a planned Arab League parley in Damascus. Despite the efforts of the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, leaders from top Arab states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have yet to confirm their participation in the summit.

One possible solution to the Arab League’s most divisive issue may have been offered yesterday, as Syria officially invited Lebanon to participate in the summit. But it is unclear whether Lebanon’s Prime Minister Siniora will accept the invitation. The Arab dispute over Lebanon may have to be solved by uniting over a strong denunciation of Israel — or by reviving, for a third time, the so-called Arab peace initiative.

Members of the OIC “in particular” have used the U.N. system “as a venue to engage in polemics against Israel that go beyond legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies and instead demonize Israelis and, implicitly, Jews generally,” the State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, Gregg Rickman, said in the report released yesterday to Congress.