Palestinian demonstrators carry Palestinian and Hamas flags during protest in Damascus near the Yarmuok refugee camp. (Reuters)

CAIRO — Muslims worldwide protested Friday, June 30, against Israel's ongoing onslaughts on the Gaza Strip after the main weekly Muslim prayers, chanting anti-Israeli slogans and urging their governments to kick out the Israeli ambassadors.

Egyptians demonstrated at Al-Azhar mosque following the Friday prayer, calling on President Hosni Mubarak to close the Israeli embassy and reconsider the country's peace agreement with Tel Aviv, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The first demand of the people -- close the embassy and expel the ambassador," the protestors chanted.

"Palestine is Arab," "The West is trying to crush the Palestinians' democratic choice," the demonstrators added in reference to Israeli moves against the government formed by Hamas after its upset January parliamentary election triumph.

Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood had called for an anti-Israeli demonstration outside Al-Azhar but the authorities deployed thousands of riot police in surrounding streets to prevent worshippers from taking part.

Israel pounded Gaza with 30 air raids overnight as part of a wide-scale assault, the biggest offensive since pulling out of the territory in September.

Israel claims that it operation is aimed at setting free an Israeli soldier taken prisoner by resistance fighters, but the Palestinians say that Tel Aviv is set to topple the Hamas-led government.

In the Syrian capital Damascus, demonstrators carried Palestinian and Hamas flags near the Yarmouk refugee camp.

Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous country, also on Friday condemned the use of "excessive force" by Israel in Gaza.

"The Indonesian government condemns Israel's military aggression in Palestine and the arrest of a number of Palestinian cabinet members and parliamentarians," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda told reporters.

"The excessive use of force and destruction of civilian installations by Israel, which have a widespread humanitarian impact, are in contravention to international laws," he added.

Wirayuda also urged Palestinian leaders to unite.

"Divisions among Palestinians will only weaken their struggle," he said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Islamic advocacy group in the US, has also urged world leaders to be far more critical of Israel.

"Again we see Israel carrying out acts of state terror and the international community offering only a mild and indirect response that will be taken as a 'green light' by Israeli officials," CAIR board chairman Parvez Ahmed said in a statement.

No Concessions

They can arrest leaders, assassinate leaders, but our flag will not fall," said Haniya. (Reuters)

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya vowed Friday that his Hamas-led government would not fall.

"Our people are patient. They can arrest leaders, assassinate leaders, but our flag will not fall," Haniya preached in a Gaza mosque.

Israel on Thursday arrested a third of the Hamas-led Palestinian cabinet, rounding up eight government ministers and scores of the group's members in a massive operation that has been slammed by the governing party as a declaration of war.

It further revoked the Al-Quds residency rights of a Hamas cabinet minister and three Hamas MPs, facing them with expulsion from the occupied holy city.

Haniya accused Israel of planning an "open war" after "failing to blackmail" his government into making concessions.

He said that the aggressions are jeopardizing Hamas's efforts to release the soldier.

"We are continuing our efforts and communications with the Egyptians, with the president and other parties to end this matter, but the Israeli escalation is putting up obstacles," Haniya said, referring to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

"We are working to end this crisis but the aggression must stop and the siege has to be lifted," he said in his first public statement since Israel sent troops into southern Gaza on Wednesday, June 28.

Israel halted a planned incursion into northern Gaza on Thursday, owing to an Egyptian request to give negotiations more time.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in comments published Friday that Hamas has agreed to secure the conscript's release, albeit on certain conditions.

The United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Israel on Friday to allow urgent medical and food supplies into Gaza.

Many Palestinian civilians — confined by the closure of key crossing points and suffering from a clampdown on foreign aid — are now living on "just one meal a day", according to the UN's World Food Program (WFP).

The WFP said that the Israeli escalation has affected all aspects of Palestinian life, including access to food, health care, education and fuel.