Egypt PM in Gaza denounces Israel's attacks as 'aggression'

GAZA: Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, on a brief visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday, denounced Israel's attacks on the Palestinian territory and said Cairo would try to secure a cease-fire.

"Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce," Kandil said during a visit to a Gaza hospital.

Fighting continued along the Israel-Gaza border during Kandil's three-hour visit.

Israel had announced it would hold its fire while Kandil was in the enclave on condition that Hamas militants did the same. It resumed air strikes after volleys of rockets were fired at southern Israel.

Egypt, now led by an Islamist government seen as ideologically close to Hamas, has brokered previous informal truces between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Kandil said Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, sought the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. DailyStar