RIYADH, July 27: Depicting the overall Arab mood, virtually all the Saudi newspapers have been carrying on their front pages the photograph of a two-month-old Palestinian child killed in Israeli bombing on Monday.

The Arab world is seething with deep anger, sorrow and confusion. Virtually everyone here believes that the first casualty of the Israeli bombing was the emerging hopes of some sort of understanding between the warring factions, the Palestinians and the Israelis, in the region.

Saudi Arabia called on the international community for tough measures against Israel and its crimes against the Palestinian people. Foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told a press conference in Cairo after meeting President Mobarak that, “we believe the biggest loser (of this attack on Gaza) are the Israeli people. History would record these atrocities against them.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher termed the Israeli attack as a ‘war crime’. By launching the strike, Maher said, “Israel was seeking to blow up the anticipated deal between Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and the Hamas to stop attacks on Israeli civilians”.

Meanwhile, the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the raid in Gaza requires action from UN Security Council and human rights groups while reinforcing Arab calls for international protection for the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority meanwhile, was preparing to file a complaint with the International Criminal Court for the “crime against humanity”, it was reported.

Analysts here believe that the implications of the attack could be disastrous for the region. It could generate a new wave of attacks and counter-attacks.

Ezzeddine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas has already vowed bloody retaliation for the killings in Gaza. “This massacre will not pass without a final punishment,” its spokesman Abdulaziz Al-Rantisi was quoted here as saying.

“Al-Qasam’s Brigades will hit everywhere and anywhere. The terrorist Sharon’s head is wanted for assassinating our freedom fighters and his family,” Al-Rantisi said.

“We will shatter Zionist bodies into pieces in every restaurant, every bus station, and in every bus,” he said. The reprisal will be “swift, tough and painful,” he added.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, had earlier promised retaliation for the bloody operation. “We can no longer respond with words to the butchery perpetrated by Israel. Let action speak for itself,” he emphasized.