Brotherhood calls attacks ‘new massacre’
AMMAN: Israel faced international condemnation on Saturday over the killing of eight Palestinian civilians, including three children, while they picnicked on a Gaza beach. The United States, Israel s staunchest ally, voiced its regret for the killing and wounding of innocent Palestinians, while urging both sides to show restraint and avoid all actions that could exacerbate tensions further . United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called for a full investigation into Friday s air raids, saying he was deeply disturbed by the killings. The Arab League condemned the attack as unacceptable terrorism. Seven Palestinians died on Friday when the Israeli military shelled the beach where they were enjoying the Muslim day of rest. An eighth victim died in hospital on Saturday. The military wing of the Palestinian s Hamas government ended its 16-month ceasefire on Saturday in response to the attacks, just as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas set July 26 as the date for a referendum on a peace plan that implicitly recognizes Israel s right to exist. Abbas has declared three days of mourning for the victims, five of whom were members of a single family, of the shelling, which it describes as Israel s bloody massacres . Russia – a member of the international Quartet mediating in the Middle East peace process alongside the European Union, the UN and the U.S. – said it was deeply shocked by Israel s unacceptable and disproportionate use of force. France also condemned the air raids as disproportionate, while Spain expressed its opposition to the use of force as a means of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters in Cairo on Saturday: We condemn these Israeli raids that targeted women and children. This is unacceptable terrorism. In Amman, where Jordan s King Abdullah II met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this week about the peace process, the government called the Israeli killings a crime. The Israeli escalation against the Palestinians does not help in creating climates of trust between the two sides and will increase tensions, the official Petra news agency quoted government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh as saying. Egypt and Syria likewise condemned the Israeli bombardments as unacceptable. Egypt s Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition bloc in parliament, denounced the deaths as a new massacre. These Zionist carousing and immoral escape that relies on the intransigence of force, which is fully supported by Washington, must be condemned and denounced and in the strongest terms, the group said in a statement. It added that these actions require a swift move from all official and popular forces to stop them immediately. Elsewhere in the Middle East, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora warned that verbal condemnation was insufficient in the face of continuing Israeli barbarism and appealed for an international investigation into the shelling. Calls for international action were echoed in Tehran, where Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, on Saturday. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi condemned the savage Zionist regime s crime in killing innocent Palestinians and called for a United Nations inquiry. Turkey, Israel s main ally in the region, said those responsible for the attack should be punished, after Israel said it regretted what happened and would suspend shelling while conducting its own inquiry. Ankara urged both Israelis and Palestinians to show restraint, while Syria appealed to the Palestinians to remain united despite the attack. But the military wing of Hamas announced it had fired at least 14 rockets into Israel after ending its ceasefire. Two Syrian-based Palestinian groups, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, urged all militant Palestinian branches … to unite in the battle for the defense of the Palestinian people, to respond to this massacre and punish the criminals. The Israeli army said Hamas had fired home-made rockets into Israeli territory but reported no damage or casualties. Medical officials said four Palestinians were injured when one of the notoriously unreliable rockets landed in northern Gaza. AFP
