Egypt condemns Israeli strikes on Gaza

Egypt's foreign minister condemned Israel's air strikes on Gaza on Saturday and called for an immediate end to the attacks to prevent further bloodshed, the state news agency MENA said. Israel killed four Gaza militants on Saturday, raising the death toll in two days of violence to 14 and dozens of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel injured at least four people. After weeks of relative calm, violence along the Israeli-Gaza frontier escalated on Friday when Israel blew up a car in Gaza City, killing two militant leaders. Israel said one of the militants killed on Friday had been involved in plotting a cross-border attack from Egypt. "Egypt is highly distraught by the Israeli attacks," MENA quoted Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr as saying on Saturday. "Egypt is currently exerting efforts and making crucial calls for an immediate end to this Israeli escalation to end bloodshed of our brothers."