Protesters across M-E denounce Israeli assault on Gaza

AFP CAIRO THOUSANDS of people across the Middle East protested on Friday against Israel’s aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with some chanting “death to Israel” and others calling for the bombing of Tel Aviv. In Cairo, several thousand protesters gathered outside Al-Azhar mosque after weekly Muslim prayers and chanted “We will go to Gaza in our millions,” swearing to “sacrifice ourselves for you, Palestine.” “It’s the least we can do,” protester Ahmed Selim said.

“We need to show Israel our anger.” President Mohammed Morsi himself branded the Israeli assault in which 23 Palestinians have been killed as a “blatant aggression against humanity and promised that “Egypt will not leave Gaza on its own,” MENA news agency said.

“Egypt will not hesitate to intensify its efforts and make sacrifices to stop this aggression and achieve a lasting truce,” he said.

Before the Cairo demonstration, influential Egyptian-born theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi said in a sermon at Al Azhar that the “Muslim nation should join ranks.” “Our umma (the worldwide Muslim community) is the strongest of ummas,” he said.

“Israel the arrogant cannot humiliate it, despite its missiles and its arms.” In the central West Bank city of Ramallah, more than 1,000 protesters shouted slogans of support for Gaza’s Hamas rulers and waved the Islamist movement’s green flag.

“Hamas, bomb Tel Aviv!” they chanted a day after a rocket from Gaza struck the sea just by sprawling coastal city, with a second landing on Friday in an attack claimed by militants from the ruling Islamist movement.

In Lebanon, thousands turned out for demonstrations in Palestinian refugee camps in the north and south of the country in outrage at the assault, echoing the calls from Ramallah.

“O Qassam, O beloved, bomb and destroy Tel Aviv,” they shouted in reference to the rocket and the armed wing of Hamas of the same name.

Demonstrations in Tehran and 700 other Iranian cities after Friday prayers, called for by the authorities, saw crowds chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America,” according to news agency ISNA.

“One must salute the Palestinians’ popular resistance and the response they have given to the Zionist regime (by firing rockets into Israel),” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said at the weekly prayers in Tehran.

“Your method is good and you can bring the Zionist regime to its knees,” he added.

In Tunis, 3,000 to 4,000 people demonstrated after Friday prayers in the centre of the capital in protests called by the ruling Islamist party Ennahda.

“Gaza, symbol of freedom” and “struggle for independence,” they chanted on a march from the Fatah mosque to Human Rights square.

Meanwhile Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki expressed “solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people” and denounced “a barbaric aggression by Israeli aviation,” ahead of a Saturday visit to Gaza by Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem.

Israel continued its bombardment on Friday and said it was considering launching a ground offensive into the Hamas-controlled territory.

A total of 23 Palestinians and three Israelis have died in the tit-for-tat violence.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi official said on Friday Baghdad will recommend that Arab states use oil as a weapon to exert pressure on Israel and countries that back it, particularly the US, over the Gaza crisis.

“Playing the economic card is our most powerful weapon at the moment in supporting the Palestinian people, for no military power can currently stand up to Israel,” Iraq’s permanent Arab League representative Qais al Azzawi said.

He told reporters in Cairo, where the League has its headquarters, that Baghdad would take this stand at Saturday’s emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the pan-Arab body called by Egypt to discuss Gaza. “What happened in 1973, when the Arabs stopped oil exports to Western states, is proof that this weapon can succeed in the battle between the Arabs and Israel,” Azzawi said of a decision taken during the October Yom Kippur war.