By IINA,
Washington : US President Barack Obama called on Israel to open Gaza border crossings to aid and commerce, as part of a lasting ceasefire following the conflict with Hamas. “Now we must extend a hand of opportunity to those who seek peace, as part of a lasting ceasefire, Gaza’s border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce,” Obama said on Thursday during a maiden visit as president to the State Department. The president, in his first major comments on the Middle East conflict since he was inaugurated on Tuesday, called for a monitoring regime involving the Palestinian Authority and the international community for open Gaza borders. “Relief efforts must be able to reach innocent Palestinians who depend on them,” Obama said.
The president also said he was deeply concerned about the loss of civilian life in the Gaza conflict. But he added Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israeli territory, and that he was fervently committed to Israel’s security. Obama said he would send newly-appointed Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the region “as soon as possible” in a bid to get lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “It will be the policy of my administration to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours,” Obama said, adding that he would send Mitchell soon to the region.
Obama also said the outline for a “durable ceasefire” was clear. “Hamas must end its rocket fire, Israel will complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza. The US and our partners will support a credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime so that Hamas cannot rearm”. The UN urged Israel yesterday to reopen Gaza crossings as senior officials assessed war damage and the Zionist entity warned it would strike again if Hamas rearms through smuggling tunnels. “If you want to have reconstruction, you have to have cement and construction materials and pipes and spare parts,” said UN humanitarian chief John Holmes at a UN-run school hit by an Israeli missile in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
“Everything has got to come in; that is one of the things we will be insisting on strongly” in discussions with Israel, said Holmes who was touring Gaza along with UN Middle East envoy Robert Serry. “It is particularly saddening and sickening to see a school destroyed like this,” said Holmes at the site of one of four UN-run schools hit by Israeli strikes during the 22-day war that left much of Gaza in ruins.
Speaking a day after Obama called Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Serry said the sputtering Middle East peace process had to be renewed in order to avoid such wars.
“I very much hope that very soon… with vigour a peace process will be renewed because the only reasonable way out is a two-state solution,” he said. Hamas’s chief has called on the West to lift a ban on contacts with his Islamist movement.