Egypt calls for end to Israeli military action

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Friday for Israel to halt its "aggression" against the Palestinian Authority.

In a statement read on Egyptian television, Mubarak said the Israeli military action only one day after the adoption of a peace initiative by the Arab League at its Beirut summit reveals Israel's "heedlessness of all values and laws and its excessive rejection of peace and challenging the world."

Israeli forces stormed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters early Friday in response to an escalating series of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, including Wednesday night's terrorist bombing in the seaside town of Netanya. That attack killed 22 people who were sitting down to a Passover dinner. Another Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Israelis in a Jerusalem supermarket on Friday.

Mubarak's statement said Egypt opposes the killing of civilians, and demanded that "Israel immediately stop its aggression," warning that "these new and repeated invasions will have grave repercussions."

Mubarak warned Israel's acts would lead "to a vicious circle of violence that harms the interests of the region's countries, Israel at the top."

"Egypt particularly warns against attempting to hurt the Palestinian Authority and its leader because such aggressive attempts are a violation of all international laws and agreements," the statement said.

Mubarak also warned against "harming religious sanctities," saying such actions will only "flare the fire of hatred and destructive despair."

He also called on the international community, especially the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, to quickly interfere to stop the Israeli military action against the Palestinian Authority and to ensure Arafat's safety and the lifting of obstacles against him doing his work.