Want to stop thewar, Hamas? Then get out of Gaza, says the US’s top Middle East diplomat
ISRAEL AT WAR
HAMAS leaders should quit Gaza immediately to spare the suffering of Palestinian civilians, America’s most experienced Middle East diplomat has said.
Ambassador Dennis Ross, who served five US presidents in a variety of roles, said the swift departure of the terror group’s commanders would be the only way of bringing Israel’s bombardment of the region to ‘a halt very quickly’.
The alternative, he said, would be for Israel to continue its military campaign, which he predicted would continue in its current ‘intense’ form until next month.
‘As long as Hamas has the potential to control Gaza, Israel will feel they can’t live with that threat next door,’ Mr Ross told Radio 4’s Today programme.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza continued on Friday with reports of air strikes, including one on the Nuseirat refugee camp which is said to have killed at least 18 people.
People in the nearby Bureij camp were ordered by Israel’s army to move south as it continued its ground offensive.
Last night, Israel said it had arrested 200 members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups in the past week and taken them into its territory for questioning, bringing the total to 700.
The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 20,000 people have been killed and 53,000 injured in Gaza during the onslaught.
In New York, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution urging more humanitarian aid for Gaza but the motion fell short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The UN says Gaza is at risk of famine if the war continues. A quarter of households – roughly 500,000 people – are facing ‘catastrophic conditions’, a UN food security agency found.
It says the territory’s entire population of roughly 2.2million people is suffering acute food shortages. ‘No one in Gaza is safe from starvation,’ said Cindy McCain from the UN’s World Food Programme.
‘Humanitarian access is needed now for supplies to flow into and throughout Gaza, and for civilians to safely receive life-saving aid’.
Ambassador Ross said: ‘There is a way out that would be for Hamas’s leadership to decide to leave. That would spare Gaza, that would spare the people... much more immediately than the alternative which is going to be a continuing Israeli campaign.’
He added: ‘I think the intense part of this campaign is likely to conclude some time in January... They’re likely to reduce the presence and demobilise and have more targeted attacks against what they see are pockets of Hamas that still endure.’