Cairo urges Israel to stop attacks on Palestinians

Cairo: Egypt has called on Israel to stop deadly attacks on the Palestinian territory and to avoid further military escalation in an ongoing military campaign on the Gaza Strip, the official Egyptian Middle East news agency reported.

The call was made late Wednesday in a phone contact that Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri made to his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi. Shukri stressed the necessity of halting Israeli attacks on the Palestinian lands and the importance of working to spare the region further escalation. He underlined Egypt’s keenness on regional stability by resolving problems through diplomatic means and negotiations. “The latest developments emphasise the necessary resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts as soon as possible and without delay,” the Egyptian official was quoted as telling Ashkenazi.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed this week in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip as the enclave’s ruling Palestinian Hamas faction fired rockets at Israeli cities in the worst showdown between both sides in years.