Egypt 'strongly condemns' deadly Israeli attack on Gaza hospital

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi slammed a deadly attack widely believed to be by Israel on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza Tuesday evening, killing hundreds of Palestinians as Israel's war on Gaza entered its second week. 

In an official statement released overnight, Sisi "strongly condemned" "the Israeli "deliberate" bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, calling for "an immediate cessation of such practices against civilians.

Sisi described the attack as "a clear violation of international law and international humanitarian and legitimate principles."

Sisi was expected to meet US President Joe Biden for talks over the ongoing fight between the Hamas faction ruling the Gaza Strip and Israel along with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II. But the meeting was cancelled after angry protests erupted near the Israeli embassy in Jordan's capital, Amman, shortly after the attack on the hospital.

"Even though Biden has frequently and publically labelled the Hamas offensive against Israeli occupation as 'terrorist acts,' Sisi seemed to have been looking forward to meeting him as interests mattered the most for him," a prominent political analyst told The New Arab on condition of anonymity.

"Because of the atrocious nature of last night's attack on a hospital, Sisi could not jeopardise his already compromised popularity ahead of the presidential elections [due in December this year] and cause more frustration to his people who tend to cling to a cause distracting them from the current economic crisis," the analyst further explained.    

Egypt and Israel have technically been at peace since 1978, sharing strong diplomatic and economic relations.

However, the Egyptian people have long been at loggerheads with the successive country's regimes over normalisation, as many consider Israel a coloniser of Palestine since the 1948 war, an oppressor of the Palestinian people and a former occupier of the Sinai Peninsula.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Al-Azhar institution, the highest Islamic Sunni authority in the region, denounced in a statement on Wednesday the recent offensive against the Palestinians of Gaza, deeming it as "barbaric" and prompting Arab states to confront Israel.

"The Arab and Muslim nation must radically reconsider its dependence on the arrogant ‎Euro-American West, and the Palestinians must feel sure that the West, with all its military ‎capabilities and destructive machines, is weak and fearful when it encounters you or ‎when you [confront] them," Azhar said in a statement an official statement.

"You must comply with Allah the Almighty's saying, 'Do not falter or grieve, for you will ‎have the upper hand if you are true believers.' If you wish to know the reality of your ‎enemy, carefully consider the Almighty's saying: 'Even then your hearts became ‎hardened like a rock or even harder,'" the statement read, citing verses of the holy Quran.‎