Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri blamed Hamas on Thursday for not agreeing to the ceasefire sponsored by his country, which would have averted a ground invasion of Gaza.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri made the accusation against Turkey, Qatar and Hamas in a briefing with local newspaper editors, the state news agency MENA reported.
“Had Hamas accepted the Egyptian initiative, at least 40 Palestinian souls would have been saved,” MENA quoted Shukri as saying.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Shukri spoke of the worldwide support for the Egyptian ceasefire plan, and criticized Hamas for not accepting it:
The only way to protect the people and to avoid additional bloodshed is acceptance of the plan. The plan has been widely endorsed by the Arab League, it has been endorsed by the European Union … and it continues to gain momentum in terms of recognition.
Had it been accepted by all parties, had it been accepted by Israel, had it been accepted by all factions in Gaza, we would have saved many lives that have been lost unnecessarily.
The AP notes that since Israel accepted the Egyptian plan, Shukri was “indirectly blaming Hamas for the continuing bloodshed.”
Shukri is not alone in the Arab world in sharing this belief. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) collected a number of analyses critical of Hamas from throughout the Arab world. In particular, a commentary written by Salman al-Dosari, editor of the London-based, Saudi-sponsored newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, sounds similar to Shukri’s.
“Those who follow Israel’s attacks on Gaza are flabbergasted by the limited number of Israeli losses versus the vast number on the Palestinian side. Hamas, for its part, has never published any data on its enemy’s losses. Nobody [in Hamas] is asking if the loss of [Palestinian] life is justified. [Hamas considers it] more important to encourage the voices [calling out] the slogan of resistance, which sounds nice but does not take into account the horrible consequences.
“[The story of Hamas] is the story of Hassan Nasrallah and his resistance to Israel, which ended in the destruction of half of Lebanon [in 2006]… When has Hamas ever stopped trading in the blood of its people?!
In rejecting the Egyptian ceasefire proposal, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri was quoted at a Hamas affiliated website:
There is no official Arab activity to rescue Gaza. We feel greatly betrayed by official Arab regimes; we have encountered no real official Arab position.
[Photo: CCTV AFrica / YouTube ]