World Bulletin/News Desk

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah on Sunday told a visiting Hamas delegation that his country supports an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire between Palestinian factions and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who arrived in Kuwait earlier in the day, Sheikh Sabah condemned Israeli "aggression and crimes" against the Gaza Strip and reaffirmed support for the Palestinians.

Since July 7, Israel has been pounding the blockaded Gaza Strip with devastating air and naval bombardment with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire.

At least 420 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since then.

Egypt tabled a ceasefire proposal last week, which called on Israel to cease all hostilities in the Gaza Strip, halt all ground operations and refrain from targeting civilians, according to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement.

It also called on Palestinian factions to cease hostilities against Israel, halt rocket fire and cross-border attacks and stop targeting civilians.

The overture further called for reopening Gaza's closed border crossings and facilitating the movement of persons and goods in and out of the embattled coastal strip, once the security situation becomes stable on the ground.

While Israel initially accepted the plan, the Egyptian proposal was rejected by Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad who said they were never consulted about the plan's terms.

Egypt, which shares a border with both the Gaza Strip and Israel, has been a traditional mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.

Relations between Egypt and Hamas have deteriorated since the army's ouster of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July.

Earlier this year, an Egyptian court banned the activities of Hamas, an ideological offshoot of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.