Israel should halt air strikes against Gaza

The new cycle of violence in Gaza will prove to be counterproductive to all parties involved. And unfortunately, it will be very costly to the Middle East peace process, commented a UAE daily. Following a number of rocket attacks, Israel retaliated with air strikes in which a number of Palestinian civilians were killed. The Israeli raids last Thursday and Friday left no less than 15 people dead and more than 40 injured. Israel has said that the raids have come in response to the earlier attacks to which the armed wing of Hamas has claimed responsibility. "There is no question that an attack against Israel is a temporary act, one that would not lead to any real change in the Palestinians' situation. Yet at the same time, Israel's reaction is out of proportion given the environment within which the attacks have been carried out", Gulf News said in its today's editorial. It is no secret that Israel continues with its iron-fisted behaviour against the Palestinians. Over the past months, it has followed a policy of closing all windows of hope for Palestinians. Israel is continuing to announce every few weeks its plans to build new colonies on occupied Palestinian land, it added. In addition, the Israeli authorities have not eased any of the travel restrictions on Palestinians who would be performing their prayers at Al Aqsa mosque in Occupied Jerusalem given that it is Ramadan. More importantly, though, Palestinians have lost any hope of resuming peace talks which address their grievances and hopes for a future state as Israel has nullified all negotiations and talks. "Hence, it should not come as a surprise that there is an increase in violence now given the surrounding circumstances of a misery that have long been neglected. No one in the region needs any more violence and doing justice to the Palestinian cause would ensure violence ends", the paper noted.