We’ll back the Gaza militants, says Egypt
President’s warning as fears rise of Israeli invasion and rockets land near Jerusalem
EGYPTIAN leaders promised to support Gaza against Israeli attack yesterday amid increasing signs that a massive ground invasion could be launched by Israel this weekend.
President Mohammed Mursi said he would not leave Gaza on its own and condemned Israel’s ‘blatant aggression against humanity’.
The declaration, hours after a visit to Gaza by Egypt’s prime minister, increased tensions in the region where Hamas militants continued to fire rockets into southern Israel – with three landing near Jerusalem – and Israeli warplanes pounded Palestinian targets.
Mr Mursi, whose Muslim Brotherhood is linked to Hamas, did not elaborate on what form the support would take. Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire or peace agreement but with Hamas firing rockets across the border, and Israel calling up 16,000 of the 30,000 reservists the govern÷ ment authorised, there are fears it may already be too late.
Meanwhile Jordan’s King Abdullah cancelled a trip to Britain next week amid fears that his country could be the next to experience the Arab Spring’s demands for change.
Protesters packed the streets of the capital Amman yesterday demanding the end of the monarch’s rule.
In Gaza, Egyptian prime minister Hisham Kandil held the bloodied body of a child during his visit to a hospital, promising: ‘ Egypt will spare no effort to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce.
‘What I am witnessing in Gaza is a disaster and I can’t keep quiet. The Israeli aggression must stop.’
With tears streaming from his eyes, Mr Kandil claimed the boy was killed in an Israeli airstrike and called for an end to the operation.
‘What I saw in the hospital, the wounded and the martyrs, the boy, the martyr Mohammad Yasser, whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about,’ he said.
Israeli vice prime minister Moshe Yaalon held out the possibility of peace while his country’s army continued its build-up of forces.
Mr Yaalon said: ‘If Hamas says it understands the message and commits to a long ceasefire, via the Egyptians or anyone else, this is what we want. We are in contact with the Egyptian defence ministry. And it could be a channel in which a ceasefire is reached.’
The conflict poses a test of Mr Mursi’s commitment to Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which the West views as the bedrock of Middle East peace.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which brought him to power in an election after the downfall of pro-Western Hosni Mubarak, called yesterday for a Day of Rage in Arab capitals condemning Israel. Twenty-two Palestinians, including at least five children and a pregnant woman, and three Israelis have been killed since Wednesday.
Israel targeted more than 130 locations in Gaza overnight on Thursday aimed at knocking out rocket-firing facilities which they say have been positioned close to schools and hospitals.
The Israel Defence Forces said they had targeted more than 450 ‘terror activity sites’ in the Gaza Strip since Operation Pillar of Defence began with the assassination of Hamas’s top military commander in an Israeli missile strike.
Tanks and self-propelled guns were seen near the border area yesterday, fuelling talk of an Israeli offensive, while sirens sounded again over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem after witnesses in Gaza saw a longrange rocket launched. Israeli
‘Meaningful ceasefire’
police said it landed in the sea off Tel Aviv.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who at one point was rushed to a reinforced room because of rocket attacks, has warned that his country is prepared to extend its operation against Hamas, underlining fears of a repeat of the ground incursion four years ago in which hundreds were killed.
Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday urged both Israel and the Palestinians to make efforts to halt the violence in Gaza, but made clear he believes Hamas bears the greatest responsibility for the current crisis, as well as the ability to bring it most swiftly to an end.
Mr Hague said he had spoken to the Egyptian foreign minister to urge him to use his country’s influence to try to negotiate a ‘meaningful’ ceasefire. Iraq’s representative to the Arab League, Qais al-Azzawy, said Arab states should use oil as a weapon to put pressure on the US and Israel over the attacks on Gaza.
Jordan’s King Abdullah had been due to visit Britain next week to speak to the Jewish community in London. The cancellation followed protests in Amman which spread to other parts of the country. At least one person was killed and 75 injured, including 58 policemen.
Among those taking part was the Muslim Brotherhood, which Jordan has accused of inciting the unrest to score political points ahead of parliamentary elections in January.