WASHINGTON (Agencies)
U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday any ceasefire to end the Gaza crisis must include provisions that prevent Hamas from using the coastal strip to fire rockets into Israel.
"Instead of caring about the people of Gaza, Hamas decided to use Gaza to use rockets to kill innocent Israelis," Bush told reporters after a White House meeting with a Sudanese official. "Israel's obviously decided to protect itself."
He said that the United States was concerned about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip on the 10th day of a relentless Israeli air and land assault against Hamas gunmen.
" I know people are saying: let's have a ceasefire. (Those have) noble ambitions. But any ceasefire must have the conditions in it so that Hamas does not use Gaza as a place from which to launch rockets, " U.S. President George W. Bush "All of us of course would like to see, you know, violence stop, but not at the expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from happening again," the U.S. President said.
"I know people are saying: let's have a ceasefire. (Those have) noble ambitions. But any ceasefire must have the conditions in it so that Hamas does not use Gaza as a place from which to launch rockets."
More than 555 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's Operation Cast Lead was launched on Dec. 27 to end Hamas rocket attacks across the border into southern Israel.
The Israeli government has so far rejected European-led calls for a ceasefire, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told parliament Monday the Hamas war would go on.
"Gaza City is partially surrounded," Barak told MPs. "We have hit Hamas hard, but we have not yet reached all the goals that we have set for ourselves and the operation continues." |
