Middle East urges for restraint, Iran congratulates Hamas

Following the attack on Israel by Hamas on Saturday, most Middle Eastern countries urged both sides to exercise restraint, while Iran – a historical foe of the Jewish-majority nation – congratulated the Palestinian fighters 

Egypt warned of "grave consequences" from an escalation in tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, in a statement from the foreign ministry carried by the state news agency.

It called for "exercising maximum restraint and avoiding exposing civilians to further danger".

An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, however, congratulated Palestinian fighters for launching the biggest attack on Israel in years, the semi-official ISNA news site reported.

"We congratulate the Palestinian fighters," it quoted Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying. "We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem."

Similarly, Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, an arch nemesis of Israel, issued a statement on Saturday saying it was closely following the situation in Gaza and was in "direct contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistance".

Following events involving Gaza fighters who fired a barrage of rockets into Israel, the statement added that it was a "decisive response to Israel's continued occupation and a message to those seeking normalisation with Israel".

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, called for restraint.

"We call for restraint from all parties," Erdogan said at a congress for his ruling AK Party in Ankara. "They must refrain from aggressive acts," he said.

Saudi Arabia also called for an "immediate halt to the escalation of conflict between Palestinians and Israel" after Hamas fighters carried out an unprecedented attack on daybreak Saturday, reports Arab News.

Saudi Arabia's foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that it "is closely following developments in the unprecedented situation between a number of Palestinian factions and the Israeli occupation forces, which has resulted in a high level of violence taking place on a number of fronts there."

"We recall our repeated warnings of the dangers of the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation," the statement said.

Qatar's foreign ministry issued a statement saying Israel alone was responsible for the ongoing escalation of violence with the Palestinian people, reports Al-Jazeera.

It called on both sides to exercise utmost restraint and called on the international community to prevent Israel from using these events as an excuse to launch a disproportionate war against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.