LONDON (AFP) — Middle East envoy Tony Blair on Saturday called for an end to both rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Hamas-controlled strip, saying a new strategy was needed for Gaza.
"The terrible events and tragic loss of life in Gaza require, in the immediate term, the introduction of a genuine calm in which the rocket attacks aimed at killing Israeli civilians and the Israeli attacks on Gaza cease so that the suffering of the people, which is severe, can be lifted," he said.
"Then, as I have said many times before, we need to devise a new strategy for Gaza, which brings that territory back under the legitimate rule of the Palestinian Authority in a manner which ends their suffering and fully protects the security of Israel."
Blair's comments came after Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip, which killed 195 Palestinians, while Hamas swiftly responded by firing rockets into the Jewish state.
The former British prime minister has served as Middle East envoy for the quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia for more than a year.
The quartet has endorsed a roadmap that calls for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel. It has refused to deal with Hamas, which it sees as a terrorist group bent on Israel's destruction.
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