US reiterates offer to arrange Israel-Hamas mediation

The United States says that it is ready to leverage its relationships in the Middle East to try to bring about a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

The US offer came a day after President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer to facilitate an end to Hamas rocket fire and Israeli aerial strikes that have killed over 100 Palestinians in Gaza.

“There 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,” says White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

“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 cease-fire and to try to get this situation back on the path of de-escalation.”

On that occasion, the United States worked with Egypt to broker a deal to end eight days of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

It is unclear, however, whether such an approach would work again.

Then Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who had contacts with Hamas, has been deposed, and the new government has cracked down on the Palestinian militant group.

Washington’s own influence may also have eroded, given the failure of a US-brokered peace effort between Israelis and Palestinians.

– AFP