President Mohamed Morsy said Wednesday that Egypt does not accept nor can turn a blind eye to any aggression against Palestinians, the state-owned news agency MENA reported.
“We don’t accept that people of Palestine be besieged,” Morsy said during an Endowments Ministry celebration of Preachers’ Day.
An Israeli air strike killed a one in Gaza and Palestinians had fired rockets into Israel from Gaza earlier Wednesday, Reuters reported. On Tuesday, three Hamas men were killed by Israel, which said that they had attacked or were planned to do so. An IDF spokesperson said that 79 projectiles were fired at Israel. Hamas claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.
"We did not choose this escalation, nor did we initiate it, but if it continues, we are prepared for a much wider and deeper operation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while visiting an anti-missile site in southern Israel. He pledged to press on with "targeted attacks" against militants preparing to fire rockets, Reuters reported.
Morsy explained that Egypt after the revolution would never consent to any aggression over Palestinians, alluding to the Hosni Mubarak regime’s role in the Israeli war against Gaza in 2008. Observers had accused the regime of turning a blind eye to it.
Morsy stressed that Egypt supports Palestinians with food and medications, adding that “the Palestinian case is pivotal for us.”
"We do not declare war on anyone. Palestinian rights will not be lost, we are in the same trench with our kin [Palestinians] against any aggression toward them."
According to Reuters, a Palestinian official said the Egyptian government was attempting to organize a truce.
"The contacts Cairo made resulted in a verbal promise by Hamas to calm the situation, and Israel said it was monitoring the situation on the ground and would refrain from attacks unless it was subject to rocket fire from Gaza," said the official.
