While condemning Hamas as “extraordinarily irresponsible” for launching rockets from population centers, Obama urged an eventual “formula” to ease the hardships of ordinary Palestinians who have suffered during the latest conflict.
Israel maintains a rigid blockade around the impoverished enclave effectively turning it into a giant open air camp.
“There has to be a recognition that Gaza cannot sustain itself permanently closed off from the world and incapable of providing some opportunity – jobs, economic growth – for the population that lives there,” Obama admitted at the end of a summit hosting African leaders in Washington.
“The question then becomes: can we find a formula in which Israel has greater assurance that Gaza will not be a launching pad for further attacks … but at the same time ordinary Palestinians have some prospects for an opening of Gaza so that they do not feel walled off?” he said.
Obama repeated his support for US ally Israel´s “right to defend itself” but also reiterated his “distress” at the loss of civilian life in Gaza.
