Egypt strongly condemned Israel’s “continued targeting of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza”, according to a statement by the foreign affairs ministry on Wednesday.
The statement is the second in two days which states its rejection of Israel’s “excessive” use of “unjustified” violence against Palestinians.
The Wednesday statement comes following Israeli shelling of a market in Shejaiya in the Gaza Strip, which came as Israel was observing a four-hour humanitarian lull in the violence. The attack killed at least 17 people and injured over 200.
The statement said Egypt is renewing its calls for restrain from the Israeli side and called on Israel to immediate stop targeting civilians.
“[Targeting civilians] complicates matters and deepens existing hatred and doesn’t pave the road for the resumption of negotiations,” the statement read, asserting the need to respect human laws and Geneva conventions prohibiting targeting of civilians.
The statement also condemned the Isareli shelling of a UN school in the enclave that has been sheltering thousands of displaced people.
The school, in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, came under attack from Israeli tank shells at dawn on Wednesday. Sixteen Palestinians were killed.
It is the second time in a week that a UN school housing refugees has been hit.
The result of 23 days of unrelenting attacks on Gaza has sent the Palestinian death toll soaring above 1,300.
Egypt’s border with the strip, the only border not controlled by Israel, remains closed despite the violence, although around 100 injured Palestinians have been allowed to cross into Egypt since the beginning of hostilities to seek medical treatment.
Source : Ahram online
