The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza needs to be urgently debated in the National Assembly, the Inkatha Freedom Party said on Monday.

IFP party spokesman on foreign affairs Ben Skosana said the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestine had now reached a point where the South African Parliament needed to voice its concerns.

"Our silence as a nation can only polarise the already existing diverse opinions among South Africans on this conflict. The Inkatha Freedom Party has requested the Speaker of the National Assembly, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, to allow for a debate on the escalating crisis between Israel and Gaza, when Parliament meets on the 12th of January 2009 to decide the fate of Adv Vusi Pikoli," Skosana said in a statement.

The IFP also called for the tabling of a report by a delegation from Parliament's Foreign Affairs committee which recently visited the Middle East.

"I believe that the Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs... should be allowed to make the committee's findings and recommendations available to this particular sitting of Parliament," Skosana said.