CAIRO — President Mohammed Morsi and his appointed cabinet of Prime Minister Hisham Qandil have been applauded by millions of Egyptians for their immediate, powerful, and all-in-all unprecedented chain-reaction to the Israeli attacks on the neighboring Gaza Strip. But the president’s rising popularity quickly plunged after a train crash killed 51 children in Upper Egypt on Nov. 17.

It took Morsi a few hours after an Israeli air strike killed Hamas’ military chief, Ahmed Al-Jabari, on Nov 14, to recall Egypt’s ambassador to Tel Aviv, order a full opening of the Rafah Crossing into Gaza, declare a state of emergency in all of North Sinai’s hospitals to receive injured Palestinians, and assign Qandil to lead an official delegation to the Gaza Strip despite the ongoing Israeli strikes that shattered the windows of Egyptian houses close to the border.

Egypt’s state-owned and independent media, politicians and non-governmental organizations praised Morsi for his support to Gaza’s government and people against the Israeli strikes. Tons of medical supplies and dozens for doctors arrived in the Gaza Strip within a rescue mission which the Egyptian government facilitated its immediate crossing through the Rafah Terminal. 

On Friday, Morsi warned of the consequences of the ongoing Israeli strikes on Gaza and threatened a “people and leadership’s anger that Israel would not be able to face.”