GAZA CITY (Reuters) -- Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, on a brief visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday, denounced Israel's attacks on the Palestinian territory as aggression.

"This tragedy cannot pass in silence and the world should take responsibility in stopping this aggression," Kandil said during a visit to a Gaza hospital.

Fighting continued along the Israel-Gaza border during Kandil's three-hour visit.

But he vowed Cairo would do its utmost to secure a ceasefire to hold the fighting, which has raged since Israel's assassination of a Hamas commander on Wednesday.

"Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce," Kandil told reporters.

He called on Palestinians to implement an Egyptian-brokered national reconciliation agreement, saying the time was right for an end to the division between the West Bank and Gaza.

Palestine is right at the heart of the Islamic and Arab nation, he said.