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On Friday, the United States said that it was willing to leverage its ties with several countries in the Middle East to bring about a truce between Hamas and Israel. A day earlier, US President Barack Obama called Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, to offer to mediate for ceasefire talks which can bring an end to the rocket fire. Aerial assaults exchanged between Hamas and Israel have caused the death of over 100 Palestinians in Gaza so far.
“Ther
e are a number of relationships the United States has that we are willing to leverage in the region to try to bring about an end to the rocket fire that’s originating in Gaza and, as we saw this morning, in Lebanon. We are interested in taking the kinds of steps that we did about a year-and-a-half ago in November of 2012 to facilitate a ceasefire and to try to get this situation back on the path of de-escalation”, Josh Earnest, spokesman for the White House, said.
In 2012, the US, along with Egypt, was able to broker a deal that ended the eight-day-war between Hamas and Israel. It is unclear if such an approach will work again. Mohammed Morsi, who was the Egyptian President back then, had several ties to the Hamas. The new government, after it ousted Morsi, launched a severe crack down on the Palestinian group. Additionally, Washington’s influence may be less now than it was then, given the failure of peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis that were mediated by the US.
Earnest reiterated that Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket fire, and said that all parties should try to protect civilians
“It is evident that civilians have been killed, including children. That’s tragic, and we offer our condolences to the families”, Earnest said.