MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian refugees protest across Lebanon, Egyptians protest in Cairo over Israel attacks on Gaza

Record ID: 340450

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian refugees protest across Lebanon, Egyptians protest in Cairo over Israel attacks on Gaza
  • Date: 28th December 2008
  • Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (DECEMBER 27, 2008) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS ON STEPS OF JOURNALISTS UNION IN CAIRO CHANTING RIOT POLICE PENNING IN PROTESTERS PROTESTERS CHANTING / ONE IS SYMBOLICALLY HANDCUFFED MORE OF HANDCUFFED MAN PROTESTERS HOLDING UP EGYPTIAN FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEADER OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, MEHDI MOHAMMED AKEF, SAYING: "We have to demand the expulsion of the Zionist
  • Embargoed: 12th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAN3AUOZJQN03GK2AIOOEJRNTN
  • Story Text: Thousands of angry Palestinian refugees took to the streets of their refugee camps across Lebanon on Saturday (December 27) to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza that have killed at latest count 205 people in the bloodiest day for Palestinians in more than 20 years of conflict.
    Protesters blocked roads and burnt tyres while chanting anti-Israel slogans in several camps in the north and the south of the country and in Beirut.
    Lebanon is host to some 400,000 Palestinian refugees.
    Many of the Palestinians said they were angry at Arab states for what they see as lack of action to stop the attacks on Gaza.
    Shiite group Hezbollah condemned the attacks and said Hamas will be victorious against Israel.
    Israeli warplanes and combat helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and militants in the Gaza Strip responded with rocket salvoes that killed one Israeli man and wounded several others. Both sides said they were prepared to launch wider attacks.
    Black smoke billowed over Gaza City, where the dead and wounded lay scattered on the ground after more than 30 air strikes destroyed Palestinian security compounds, including two where Hamas was hosting graduation ceremonies for new recruits.
    The Israeli army said it had targeted "terrorist infrastructure" following days of rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel that caused some damage but few injuries.
    The rocket attacks increased pressure on Israeli political leaders to act as a February 10 election approaches.
    Meanwhile, hundreds of Egyptians protested in Cairo chanting slogans condemning the Egyptian and Arab governments for what they said was complicity in the attacks.
    During the protest, the head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Mehdi Mohammed Akef, called for the expulsion of Israel's ambassador to Egypt and the abrogation of the Camp David Accords, Egypt's peace agreement with Israel.
    The protesters gathered on the steps of Egypt's Journalists Union and were tightly penned in by a large contingent of Egyptian riot police.
    There is simmering anger in Egypt over what many see as the government's role in both helping to maintain Israel's blockade of Gaza, which has caused a humanitarian crisis, as well as today's strikes.
    Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni visited Cairo two days ago, and met with Egypt's Foreign Minister and President Hosni Mubarak.
    Today at the protest, Muslim Brotherhood head Mehdi Mohammed Akef said that it was time to end relations with Israel.
    "We have to demand the expulsion of the Zionists from Egypt, close the Zionist embassy, and expel the ambassador from Egypt, we have to cancel Camp David, we have to take up resistance now, to resist this Zionist aggression, not to deal with the Zionists anymore everywhere," said Akef.
    Arab foreign ministers are set to meet in Cairo on Sunday to seek a common position on the Israeli attacks, and Libya, the only Arab country on the U.N. Security Council, will seek an urgent meeting of the council in New York.
    Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, Dr. Essam el-Arian, said today that the Arab governments as well as the West all shared responsibility for Israel's actions.
    "I feel that all Arab regimes, and Europeans and the Americans are partners, and their silence about that means that they share with the Israelis in this massacre in Gaza. And of course Abbas is in front of this sharing. He is sharing the Israelis in the siege from the start. And now in this aggression, in this massacre done in Gaza now," he said.
    Israeli warplanes kept up attacks on targets in Gaza on Saturday after darkness fell, striking at a metal foundry and other sites in the south of the coastal strip, as the death toll continued to rise.
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