Egypt's response to Gaza attacks

This was written before the night-long attacks and does not confirm or deny reports of deployment of Egyptian tanks in the Sinai. We will have to wait for that.

Egypt condemns Israeli air strikes in Gaza and demands ceasefire

President Mohamed Morsi's party demands international action and accuses Israel of seeking to drag region towards instability

the Guardian,

14 November, 2012

Egypt has strongly condemned Israel's military assault on Gaza, calling for an immediate cessation of the air strikes against Hamas's military leadership that claimed the life of the group's operational commander, Ahmed al-Jaabari.

The country, whose government is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, which came to power after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, has a long history of mediating between Hamas and Israel. It hosted negotiations for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, which involved Jabari.

The Egyptian statement came as the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also called for an immediate ceasefire. "The secretary general calls for an immediate de-escalation of tensions," the spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

"Both sides should do everything to avoid further escalation, and they must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians at all times."

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, called for an urgent Arab League meeting on the air strikes, according to the Egyptian news agency Mena, which quoted a Palestinian official in Egypt.

"Barakat al-Fara, the Palestinian ambassador in Cairo and the Palestinian representative in the Arab League announced that, based on instructions from President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian state had asked for an urgent meeting of the Arab League to discuss the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip," Mena reported.

In recent days, Egypt helped mediate a short-lived ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after some 100 missiles were fired into Gaza over five days. The truce broke down with the air strikes on Wednesday.

A statement from Egypt's foreign ministry said: "Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr condemned the series of air strikes that Israel is currently conducting against Gaza Strip, and which led to the killing of Ahmed al-Jaabari. "He called on Israel to stop its strikes on Gaza Strip immediately."

A peace treaty between Israel and Egypt was signed in 1979 after the 1978 Camp David accords. Since then, the two countries have co-ordinated on security matters.

That relationship, however, has become increasingly tense since the fall of Hosni Mubarak during the Arab spring.

Since the election of the Muslim Brotherhood, an increasingly vociferous public debate over the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel has bubbled to the surface.

Egypt's new, Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, hails from the Freedom and Justice party (FJP), the political wing of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood group. Since his election, last June, he has strengthened the relationship between Egypt and Hamas, the political front of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood.

The chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood's FJP party, Saad Elkatatny, said: "The Egyptian people revolted against injustice and will not accept an attack on Gaza. The brutal aggression on Gaza proves that Israel has not yet learned that Egypt has changed."

A statement from the FJP added: "The Freedom and Justice party stresses its full condemnation of the Israeli assignation operation against al-Qassam leader Ahmed al-Jaabari." It called for a quick Arab and international reaction.

"Israel's return to the policy of assignation of leaders from the Palestinian struggle groups shows that the Israeli occupation wants to drag the region towards instability," the FJP statement added.

"But the occupying state has to understand that the changes the Arab region, and especially Egypt, have witnessed will not permit that the Palestinian people be put under the hold of the Israeli offence in the same way as the past."

Even before the latest attacks, the European Union and the Arab League had issued a joint statement of concern over the situation in Gaza after a meeting of foreign ministers from both groups in Cairo on Tuesday expressed "concern at the recent escalation in and around Gaza".

The Foreign Office called on Wednesday for restraint on all sides in the escalating crisis over Gaza, the worst flare-up of violence between Israel and the Palestinian territory since Operation Cast Lead, four years ago.

As news of the killing of Jaabari broke, a spokesman said: "We are aware of reports of the death of the senior Hamas commander Ahmed al-Jaabari. We continue to call on all sides to exercise restraint to prevent a dangerous escalation that would be in no one's interests."

In the US a Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Warren, said."We're monitoring the situation closely. We stand by our Israeli partners in their right to defend themselves against terrorism."