Carnage must end

Israeli Labour leader Isaac Herzog is pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to define more clearly the objectives of his strategy in Gaza and more specifically to spell out his exit plan for the so-called Operation Protective Edge launched on Gaza a week ago. 

After having killed nearly 200 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians and children, the Israeli opposition leader wants to know where Netanyahu is taking the country. 

Come to think of it, the entire international community also wants to see an end to the carnage unleashed by Netanyahu. 

Surely the Israeli prime minister does not want the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip because such a step would not work and the cost to his forces would be prohibitive should he be foolish enough to do so.

For their part, the people of Gaza want nothing less than to live freely and end the state of siege that has imposed upon them for decades. 

While Israeli domestic politics goes on debating the current war on Gaza, the international community must not sit idly by and allow the slaughter of more and more Palestinians to continue. 

For its part, Hamas must do its best not to give Israel a pretext to continue its naked aggression against the Gaza Strip and its people. 

Jordan is doing all it can to offer medical assistance to the injured Gazans and its field hospital in the coastal enclave has been working around-the-clock to alleviate the suffering of the people. Injured Gazans are also being treated at Jordanian hospitals. 

This is also the time for full and unequivocal Arab support to Gaza in every conceivable way. 

After a week of bombardment by air and sea, much of the strip’s infrastructure has been destroyed. Therefore, an Arab Marshall plan for Gaza is very much needed. 

Above all a ceasefire must be observed, followed by a process of accountability for the death and destruction that ensued over the past days.