Egypt backs under-fire Gazans

Israeli APC armored personnel carries are stationed at the Israeli-Gaza Strip border yesterday. Israeli officials said the Jewish state was preparing to launch its first ground offensive in four years into the Gaza Strip.Photo: AFP

Egyptian leaders yesterday promised to support Gaza against Israeli attacks, as violence escalated for a third day amid fears that the violence escalate into a full-blown war.
President Mohammed Morsi said he would not leave Gaza on its own and condemned Israel's "blatant aggression", hours after his prime minister visited Gaza.
Israel mounted a huge attack overnight, targeting dozens of locations. Later, Gaza militants targeted Tel Aviv with a missile but there were no casualties.
Israel targeted more than 130 locations in an overnight assault it said was aimed at knocking out rocket-firing facilities. Sporadic Israeli air strikes have continued throughout yesterday, and militants in Gaza have fired dozens of rockets.
Twenty Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed since Wednesday.
Fuelling the tension, the Israeli army yesterday began an initial draft of 16,000 reservists, after the government authorised the call-up of 30,000.
Rumours have been swirling that a ground attack is imminent, but Israeli officials have said no decision has yet been made.
Militants and civilians, including at least five children, were among the Palestinian dead, Palestinian officials said. They include Hamas's military leader Ahmed Jabari, killed by an Israeli air strike on Wednesday following a surge in rocket attacks from Gaza.
The conflict has already divided the wold opinion with West backing the Israel and Arab leaders condemning the attack.
Iran and Egypt led the angry protests.
Morsi sent Prime Minister Hisham Qandil to the territory for a three-hour visit yesterday to show solidarity with the Palestinians.
"Egypt will not leave Gaza on its own, and what is happening is a blatant aggression against humanity," the president said shortly after Qandil returned from Gaza.
Tehran called on the United Nations and the European Union to halt the "barbaric" offensive against the Gaza Strip.
The call was made in separate letters to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, IRNA reported.
An emergency UN meeting concluded Wednesday without a decision and clear signals of concern over the first escalation of Middle East violence since the 2011 Arab Spring altered the political map of the historically volatile region.
The United States called Thursday on Egypt, Turkey and European powers to press Hamas to end bloodshed in Gaza, putting the onus on the Islamist movement to end rocket attacks on Israel.
British, France and Germany have expressed concerns but put their support behind Tel Aviv.
But West's regional allies were not happy. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the Israeli offensive a "crime against humanity".