the Morsi government during the widespread June 2013 anti-Morsi protests. Up to 100,000 Syrian refugees arrived in Egypt following Morsi's inauguration as president. The government under Morsi also supported Syrian refugees living in Egypt by offering residency permits, assistance on finding employment, allowing Syrian refugee children to register in state schools and access to other public services. Iran During his tenure, Morsi strengthened ties with Iran following pre-revolutionary years of animosity between the two countries. However, his actions were met with Sunni Muslim opposition both inside and outside of Egypt. Israel and Palestine In October 2012, Morsi wrote a friendly letter to then Israeli president Shimon Peres. The letter largely followed standard diplomatic language. Morsi called Peres "a great and good friend" and went on to call for "maintaining and strengthening the cordial relations which so happily exist between our two countries." Morsi closed the letter by expressing the "highest esteem and consideration." Gamal Muhammad Heshmat asserted that the letter was "fabricated" saying that "Zionist media have leaked baseless statements by Morsi in the past." However, Morsi spokesman Yasser Ali told Egyptian state-run newspaper Al-Ahram that the letter was "100 percent correct". Previously, in July 2012, Morsi had refuted a fabricated letter. Morsi said in his victory speech that he would honour all of Egypt's international treaties, which was thought to be a reference to Egypt's treaty with Israel. Morsi's government condemned the Operation Pillar of Defense and called for a ceasefire. Morsi sent Prime Minister Hesham Qandil to Gaza to express solidarity with Gaza and Hamas, a stark contrast to Hosni Mubarak's treatment of Hamas as an enemy in the 2008–09 Gaza War. Egypt, along with the United States mediated the ceasefire with Hamas and Israel. Statements on Israel and Israelis In January 2013, statements made by Morsi in 2010 gained wide attention in the Western media, following a report in Forbes magazine on 11 January that criticized big media outlets for having ignored it. In videos posted by MEMRI, Morsi had declared "The Zionists have no right to the land of Palestine. There is no place for them on the land of Palestine. What they took before 1947–48 constitutes plunder, and what they are doing now is a continuation of this plundering. By no means do we recognize their Green Line. The land of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, not to the Zionists." In September 2010, calling the