Arab League
Arab LeagueReuters

Arab League chief Nabil El-Araby accused Israel on Wednesday of "blocking" all attempts to end the Gaza conflict, a day after Hamas breached the six-day ceasefire and fired tens of rockets on Israeli civilians. 

"Israel is blocking any kind of agreement leading to calm" in the Gaza Strip, Arabi told journalists. "The Arab League wants to reach a permanent truce as soon as possible," he said before flying off to Geneva for a meeting with the International Committee of the Red Cross to demand protection of Palestinian civilians.

The ceasefire in Gaza was set to end at midnight Tuesday, but Hamas violated it hours before that time, firing three rockets towards Be’er Sheva in the afternoon.

The group later continued by firing another barrage towards southern and central Israel, including Jerusalem; rockets have been fired on Israel throughout Wednesday. 

The Arab League's defense of Hamas follows a senior Hamas leader's own admission that the terror group had threatened the Secretary General of the organization.

"El-Araby will not be received warmly, and Gaza residents will hit him and his delegation," threatened Mustafa Sawaf, who is considered a close confidant of the Hamas leadership, in a series of statements earlier this month. 

Explaining the enmity to the apparent show of solidarity, Sawaf said Arab residents of Gaza view the Arab League as "partners to the slaughter," in an accusation of support for Israel's counter-terror Operation Protective Edge; Sawaf did not provide examples of such support.

Perhaps partially explaining the response are El-Araby's statements late last month, in which he called on Hamas to accept an Egyptian-brokered truce and agree to a ceasefire ending its attacks via rocket fire and terror tunnels.