CAIRO, July 1 (Aswat Masriya)  Egypt's foreign ministry asked Israel on Tuesday to stop its collective punishment of the Palestinian people, after it bombed dozens of sites in the Gaza trip a day after the bodies of three missing Israeli teenagers were found.

"Egypt is following the situation closely in hope for containing the repercussions of the incident and stopping it from being out of control," said a Foreign Ministry statement published through the state news agency MENA.

The teenagers, found dead in the occupied West Bank, had been missing since June 12 when they went for a hitchhiking trip.

Israel blamed the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for the kidnapping and the killing.
 
Egypt urged the Israeli forces to practice restraint and allow the Palestinian authorities to take on its responsibility in tracking the culprits.

Egypt renewed its condemnation for all forms of violence that cause the death of civilians on both sides.