‘Gravely concerned’ William Hague urges Israel-Palestine ceasefire

Published on 19/11/2012 01:28

William Hague made a fresh appeal for restraint and a ceasefire in the Gaza crisis yesterday.

The Foreign Secretary warned Israel that it risked losing international sympathy if it escalated its campaign into a ground invasion. But he repeated his insistence that Hamas bore “principal responsibility” for the violence and urged its leaders to cease a barrage of missiles.

“We are gravely concerned about this situation,” Mr Hague said. “We call on Hamas again to stop the rocket attacks on Israel, it is Hamas that bears principal responsibility for starting all of this, and we would like to see an agreed ceasefire – an essential component of which is an end to those rocket attacks.

“The Prime Minister and I have both stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy.”