AFP – Egypt condemned the Israeli air strikes on Wednesday that killed a top Hamas militant, as the country’s dominant party said Cairo would no longer stand by as the Jewish state attacks Palestinians.
Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr “condemned air strikes Israel is conducting in the Gaza Strip” and demanded they “immediately stop,” in a statement issued by his ministry.
The Islamist Freedom and Justice Party, from which President Mohamed Morsy emanated, said the air strikes that killed top militant Ahmed al-Jaabari in Gaza required “swift Arab and international action to stop the massacres.”
Israel “must take into account the changes in the Arab region and especially Egypt,” it said. Egypt “will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in the past.”
President Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in early 2011, was criticised by his opponents over his response to a devastating Israeli assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009 following rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
Morsi, a vociferous supporter of the Palestinians before his election triumph in June, had been expected to lift a blockage of the Gaza Strip which borders Egypt, but his government has backed off from his pledges.
