CAIRO: Egyptians demonstrated at Al-Azhar mosque after Friday prayers to condemn a deadly raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Shouting anti-Israeli slogans and holding up the holy Quran, protestors condemned Monday’s Israeli raid on an aid flotilla, which left at least nine people dead, triggering outrage worldwide and sparking a diplomatic firestorm.
Demonstrators waved Turkish and Palestinian flags inside Al-Azhar mosque.
Thousands also gathered Friday in the port city of Alexandria to protest the raid.
In Istanbul, around 10,000 people waving Turkish and Palestinian flags rallied on Friday in support of victims of the flotilla raid, most of which are believed to have been Turkish.
Turkey has taken the toughest response to Israel’s raid, cementing its popularity among Arabs, frustrated with their governments’ inability to face up to Israel, analysts say.
In Malaysia, some 5,000 people including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim rallied outside the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur where the Israeli flag was burned.
Protesters from both Malaysia’s ruling party and the opposition alliance yelled slogans and waved banners after marching from a Kuala Lumpur mosque, virtually closing down the main thoroughfare the embassy is situated on.
Anwar entered the embassy to deliver a letter signed by leaders of his Pakatan Rakyat alliance — which includes the conservative Islamic party PAS — as well as 20 civil society groups. The letter called on US President Barack Obama to condemn the violence against the flotilla and for Israel to end a blockade of Gaza.
It called for an independent inquiry into the incident, and urged the United States to suspend military and economic aid to Israel. "We are appalled and deeply disappointed by your weak and inadequate response on the matter," the letter said.
On Thursday, one of the Malaysians on board, Shamsul Akmar, welcomed the release of 12 Malaysians who had been on the lead Turkish vessel where the violence broke out.
Pope Benedict XVI said that hopes for Middle East peace should not be lost as he flew into Cyprus Friday for a visit. "In all of these episodes we have been living through, there has always been the danger that people lose patience and say: ‘I no longer want to seek peace’," the pope told reporters traveling with him on the plane.
"You always have to begin again afresh in the certainty that you can go forward and achieve peace."
Turkey said it will reduce economic and defense ties with Israel, but bilateral cooperation will not be entirely frozen after the Gaza ship raid, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.
Ankara "will reduce relations in these fields to a minimum level, taking into account whether (cooperation) already exists… whether payments have been made or not," Arinc said on NTV television.
"But as a state we cannot completely ignore a state whose existence we recognize," he said.
After the raid, Ankara recalled its ambassador from Israel and scrapped plans for three joint military exercises.
Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair described Israel’s blockade of Gaza as "counterproductive" in an interview published Friday.
Blair said he had been telling Israeli leaders "that because Hamas will get whatever they want through the tunnels, actually this is a counterproductive policy. You stop the legitimate goods coming in legitimately."
The former British prime minister also warned, in comments to the Independent, against a possible situation where people in Gaza end up "losing hope for the future, alienating young people we don’t need to alienate."
Blair is the representative of the quartet — the United Nations, the US, the European Union and Russia — and is working to try and bring peace to the Middle East.
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Protestors held up Palestinian and Turkish flags at Azhar mosque.
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Thousands protest in Istanbul Friday and carried coffins of the flotilla raid victims.
