LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) – Britain’s minister for the Middle East on Thursday called on Hamas, Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink of what he cast as a terrible escalation, and told the Islamist group to cease rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

“It is important for both sides to take a step back,” James Cleverly, a junior foreign minister who deals with the Middle East and North Africa, told Sky News.

“We have seen however an unprecedented level of rocket attack into Israel,” he said. “We want to see the rocket attacks stop.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Alistair Smout)

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