Gaza City/Cairo/Ramallah: The Arab world reacted in shock to the attacks on the Gaza Strip on Saturday with scattered protests around the region.
Israeli warplanes and combat helicopters pounded Gaza, killing at least 155 people in the bloodiest day for Palestinians in more than 20 years.
Hamas threatened to unleash "hell" to avenge the dead, including possible suicide bombings inside Israel.
The air strikes followed a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet to widen reprisals for cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks following the collapse of a six-month-old, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire a week ago.
Cowardly
Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said the group would "teach the enemy a lesson they will never forget," and brushed aside Israeli threats to target its leaders.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that he was in "urgent contact" with numerous countries over the deadly Israeli air strikes.
"We have carried out urgent contact with numerous Arab countries and other nations to stop the cowardly aggressions and massacres in the Gaza Strip," Abbas said.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), presided over by Abbas, called for a strike and protests in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in the centre of Ramallah.
Hundreds more Palestinians protested in south Lebanon. Demonstrators in Ain Al Helweh - the largest of the country's 12 refugee camps burned tyres and dustbins and blocked the main road.
Abbas told AFP he had called Jordan's King Abdullah II and would also be contacting King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.
"We will also contact Egypt, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations with the aim of stopping the aggression and restoring the truce," he said.
Witnesses reported heavy Israeli bombing along Gaza's border with Egypt.
Banners
Olmert had warned Hamas, which seized control of the coastal enclave in June 2007, to stop firing rockets.
"I will not hesitate to use Israel's might to strike Hamas and [Islamic] Jihad," he told Al Arabiya television, an Arab broadcaster widely watched in Gaza.
Hundreds of protesters in the Jordanian capital of Amman demonstrated in front of the nearby UN headquarters, waving Hamas banners. In Beirut, dozens of youths hit the streets to express solidarity with the Palestinians and set fire to tyres.
In Syria's Al Yarmouk camp, outside Damascus, dozens of Palestinians also protested the attack, vowing to continue fighting Israel.
Your comments
What is the point of expressing shock and condemnation? It does not lead to anything and it falls on deaf ears. The Arab/Muslim world, as well as the West, who do not support Zionism can simply boycott all Israeli goods and companies that support the State of Israel. I was in the UAE recently and I noticed that many people are enjoying products from companies that support Zionism and donate millions of dollars every year to the State of Israel. Some even sponsor IDF reservists to hang around US shopping malls to promote their stories in order to secure support from US citizens. Israel relies heavily on its financial connections worldwide. If those of us who oppose Zionists who are against Palestinians, then they should collectively act in a peaceful protest.
Abdul M. Ismail
Liverpool,UK
Posted: December 28, 2008, 14:49
