[Published: Friday November 16 2012]
 Egypt PM decries Gaza 'disaster'
Cairo, 16 Nov - (ANA) - - Egypt's prime minister has condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza as a "disaster" during a short visit to the territory. Hisham Qandil, who went to a hospital and talked to Hamas political leaders during his three-hour visit, said Israel's "aggression" must stop. The Israeli military struck at more than 130 targets overnight and militants fired 11 rockets from Gaza. At least 20 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed since Israel began its offensive on Wednesday. Militants and civilians, including at least five children, were among the Palestinian dead, Palestinian officials said. Two Israeli women and a man died when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a building in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi yesterday, Israeli officials said. The Israeli army began an initial draft of 16,000 reservists on Friday, after the government authorised the call-up of 30,000. Mr Qandil visited the Council of Ministers building in Gaza City, and also a hospital treating those wounded in attacks. "What I am witnessing in Gaza is a disaster and I can't keep quiet. The Israeli aggression must stop," he said.
Ties between Hamas and Egypt have warmed since the election of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi earlier this year. Hamas was formed as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Mr Mursi belongs. Israel said it would pause their offensive during Mr Qandil's visit if militants refrained from firing rockets. But shortly after the prime minister arrived, Israeli officials said they had launched air strikes because rockets had continued to hit Israeli towns and cities. While Mr Qandil was at the hospital in Gaza, medical workers brought in the bodies of a man and a boy who officials said had been killed in an Israeli air strike moments earlier. (ANA)
FA/ANA/16 November 2012----------
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