Maher is helped by security personnel to leave the mosque after being attacked

By Mostafa al-Sawaf, IOL Correspondent

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, December 23 (IslamOnline.net) - The assault on Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher, as he was making his way through the esplanade of Al-Aqsa Mosque, drew immediate condemnations from Palestinian officials and resistance groups, chiefly Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

"Undoubtedly, we strongly condemn this assault on a dear brother like the Egyptian foreign minister, whose country has been standing up for the Palestinian cause. This act does not serve the interests of the Palestinians," said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qorei.

Television footage showed the 68-year-old Maher being heckled and shoved as his security team and Israeli police were whisking him out from the holy mosque.

Maher fainted and complained of breathing problems while he was being evacuated.

'Deplorable'

The Islamic Resistance movement Hamas described the attack as "deplorable and immoral".

Sayed Siam, a Hamas official, told IslamOnline.net Hamas is keen on cementing the Palestinian-Egyptian time-honored relations.

"The incident aims to tarnish the image of the Palestinians and poison bilateral ties with Egypt," he said, hoping that both sides would take it into their strides.

Islamic Jihad top official Nafez Azzam regretted the incident, saying that there is no justification whatsoever to attack the Egyptian foreign minister.

"We do not accept this unjustifiable act, even if there are some Palestinians who oppose Maher's talks with the Israelis," Azzam told IslamOnline.net.

Jamil Majdalawi, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), also condemned the attack.

"We are very sorry about what has happened to the foreign minister and regard what has happened as very wrong," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Maher was hospitalized in the Israeli Hadassah medical center, in West Jerusalem, but doctors discharged him three hours later. He returned late Monday night to Cairo.

Initial reports said he was physically beaten and taken unconscious to hospital but witnesses and police later said he was accosted, jostled and possibly struck several times by a mob shouting that he was a "traitor and collaborator".

The Egyptian top diplomat was rounding off a one-day visit to Israel, where he held talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his counterpart Silvan Shalom and other top Israeli officials in his first visit to Israel for more than two years.

A statement issued by the Egyptian presidency late Monday said regretted the attack on the top diplomat.

"President (Hosni) Mubarak deeply regrets the attempt made by a small group of irresponsible Palestinians to assault Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher," said the statement read by a television presenter.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries to have diplomatic ties with Israel but relations have been strained since the start of Al-Aqsa Intifada.

A thaw in relations, however, has been detected in recent weeks with Shalom recently meeting Mubarak in Geneva.