Thousands of Protesters in Streets

Thousands swept into the streets of cities throughout the Middle East yesterday to denounce Israel's air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Several of the protests turned violent. A crowd of anti-Israel protesters in Mosul, Iraq, became the target of a suicide bomber. In Lebanon, police fired tear gas to stop dozens of demonstrators from reaching the Egyptian embassy.

Egypt - which has served as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians as well as between Hamas and its rival, Fatah - has been criticized for closing its borders with Gaza. Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, called on Hamas to renew its truce with Israel: "There has been a calm and we should work to restore it."

In Amman, Jordan, about 5,000 lawyers marched toward parliament to demand the Israeli ambassador's expulsion.

Israel was also criticized by its regional allies. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, one of the few countries in the region to have relations with Israel, called the Gaza bombardment a "crime against humanity".

Syria yesterday announced the suspension of its indirect peace talks with Israel after the attacks. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that "Israel's aggression closes all the doors" to a peace deal in the region.

Israel and Syria held four rounds of indirect negotiations in Turkey after the peace talks were launched in May. The talks have not been convened since the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, announced he would step down earlier this year.

France also called for the truce to be renewed and called on other European countries to use "all their weight" to stop the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

"The truce must be restored," France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, told a French newspaper.

He added that the attacks come "in a context of vacancy of power in Israel and the US", as both countries were undergoing leadership transitions.