Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Saturday he was dismayed at what he called Israel's excessive use of force in a four-day military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed 39 people.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including four militants in air strikes and clashes during one of Israel's biggest military operations since withdrawing from Gaza a year ago following 38 years of occupation.
The violence came a day after Israel killed 17 people, about half of them civilians and including two women acting as human shields between troops and gunmen holed up in a mosque. The army said it had fired only at armed Palestinians.
"Aboul Gheit expressed Egypt's strong dismay at the operation launched by Israel, condemning the use of excessive force and the lack of care for civilians," the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"This will only lead to more despair for Palestinians, and will increase the complexity of the situation and impede any efforts toward calm or the search for political solutions," it added. Aboul Gheit also called on Palestinian groups to stop firing rockets to avoid provoking a military response by Israel, which says its Gaza operation aims to halt rocket fire at the Jewish state.
The renewed violence has scuttled hopes of any resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, already a remote prospect since the Hamas militant group, sworn to Israel's destruction, took power in March following elections. The Palestinian health ministry said 39 people have been killed since the four-day-old offensive began.
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