CAIRO, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Egypt and the Arab League (AL) on Tuesday strongly condemned Israel's latest airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, calling them a brutal escalation and a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli move "represents a dangerous escalation that threatens to have severe consequences for the stability of the region," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Egypt reiterated its full rejection of Israel's offensive, which it said was aimed at "reintroducing tension to the region and undermining efforts to achieve de-escalation and restore stability."
Cairo, a key mediator in the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, urged the international community to intervene immediately "to prevent the region from falling back into a renewed cycle of violence and counter-violence."
Egypt also called on all parties to "exercise restraint and allow mediators to resume their efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire."
The Israeli airstrikes, launched in the early hours of Tuesday, killed at least 413 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others, according to the latest update from Gaza's health authorities.
Meanwhile, AL Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit denounced the Israeli airstrikes as "brutal," holding Israel responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, some of them women and children.
He described the resumption of Israeli "massacres" in Gaza as an inhumane act and a challenge to international efforts that had backed the ceasefire, according to a statement from the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization.
The AL chief further accused Israel of blatantly disregarding the ceasefire agreement, which was supposed to enter its second phase.
Aboul-Gheit called on the international community "to pressure Israel to immediately halt its military operations and return to ceasefire negotiations to reach a comprehensive agreement that includes prisoner exchanges and a complete end to the war." ■
