Israel has been widely condemned in the Arab and Muslim worlds for the violent clashes with Palestinians in the occupied territories and Israel over the last four days.
The Rector al-Azhar, the highest authority in the majority Sunni sect of Islam, Sheikh Sayed Tantawi, said yesterday: "Force must be our only weapon for confronting Israel."
The sheikh denounced as a "provocation" the visit of the leader of the Israeli Likud party, Mr Ariel Sharon, to the Muslim sanctuary in Jerusalem.
Militant Muslim groups said that the ongoing conflict showed there was no point in pursuing the peace process with Israel.
In Egypt, the banned Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement denouncing the "odious massacre" of Palestinians and called upon the Arab world "to protect Islam's third-holiest site."
The leader of the Hizbullah movement in south Lebanon, Sheikh Nabil Qauq, said that the new Intifada, or "rising", heralded "the step-by-step defeat of Israel". At the Ein al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, 3,000 Islamists ended prayers with a call to action.
In Cairo the official daily al-Ahram reported that the Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, had told the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, in a telephone conversation that the clashes would have "harmful repercussions for the peace process".
The Secretary General of the Arab League, Mr Ismet Abdel Maguid, who met the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, and the envoy of the EU, Mr Miguel Moratinos, on Saturday, urged Europe to use its influence to "put an end to the massacres". The League's 22 ambassadors met in emergency session yesterday in Cairo to discuss the situation.
In Riyadh, King Fahd issued a statement saying that Israel "is making a mistake hindering the peace process" or trying to "wipe out or marginalise Palestinian rights".
The Saudi newspaper Okaz carried an interview with Mr Arafat in which he asserted, "We are prepared for any option that circumstances throw [at us]. We are always looking for peace, but if we are forced to defend ourselves, we will not hesitate" to wage war.
The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Mr Abdel-Ilah Khatib, called on the Israeli government to "take the necessary steps to avoid provocative acts".
The Syrian official daily, Tishrin, said: "It appears that the failure of Israeli negotiators to persuade the Palestinians to abandon Jerusalem has caused Israel's leaders to lose their heads" and perpetrate a "massacre" of Palestinians.
The secular Syrian Communist Party called for a "unified Arab and Islamic stand" and urged Arab leaders to meet at summit level to "defend Arabs facing Israel in open combat".
