Prime Minister Gordon Brown Criticizes Israel on Gaza Attacks
Gordon Brown this morning criticised Israel for using excessive force during its three-week military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking en route to a humanitarian conference in Egypt, the prime minister demanded that Israel reopen Gaza’s crossings and allow humanitarian workers full access to the territory.
“We are yet to discover the full scale of the appalling suffering,” Brown said on an early morning flight to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. “But what is already clear is that too many innocent civilians, including hundreds of children, have been killed during the military offensive.”
Brown’s carefully chosen words indicate the government believes Israel deployed disproportionate force in its response to Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed in the 22-day assault.
The prime minister said he was particularly alarmed by the bombing of buildings used by the UN in Gaza as well as the killing of so many Palestinian children.
“Israel must allow full access to humanitarian workers and to relief supplies,” he said. “We must also end Gaza’s economic isolation by reopening the crossings that link it to the outside world.”
Brown said he hoped the military action would be seen as a pause in the peace process and that the search for a two-state solution would intensify once Barack Obama assumed the US presidency on Tuesday.
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