PA President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the rival Hamas terrorist organization on Sunday for causing Israel's military operations in Gaza by not extending a six-month truce with Israel.
Abbas, whose Fatah group has been up in arms against Hamas-controlled Gaza, said maintaining the truce could have helped the Arab residents of Gaza avoid the Israeli raids, which have killed more than 300 people in Gaza in the past two days.
"We talked to them (Hamas) and we told them, 'Please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop' so that we could have avoided what happened," he said in Cairo.
The IDF’s Operation Cast Lead is a response to the Hamas terrorist organization’s continued rocket attacks on Israel.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt, which has attempted a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, stated that Egypt complained to Israel’s ambassador about the IDF’s military strikes in Gaza.
"We object to this, and we demand...that the Israeli army does not carry out a new invasion," he said.