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Israel, Hamas should heed calls for cease fire

Israelis and Palestinians are in open war with each other in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, the Palestinian leadership organization, has been firing rockets into Israel, and the Israeli forces are responding with air raids to destroy buildings and tunnels it says are housing Hamas military operations.

This is the deadliest outbreak of violence in Gaza in years. It was sparked, apparently, by an intrusion into a mosque in April by Israeli forces who cut the wires to loudspeakers calling Muslims to prayer, to prevent them from drowning out a nearby Memorial Day speech. Tensions accelerated and Hamas started firing rockets into Israeli civilian territory on May 10. Since then they have fired 3,200 rockets into Israel. Israel attacks have killed at least 212 Palestinians, and injured 1,400.

There seems to be little that other nations can do at the moment. Some countries are calling for cease fire and hoping for a quick end to hostilities. President Biden encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu to agree to a cease fire, though the U.S. is officially not pressing for one at this time.

Peace talks may not begin until Hamas runs out of rockets, and Israel runs out of targets to bomb. In the meantime, the people of Gaza City are suffering, and Israelis are living in fear of the next rocket attack.

It is a situation that has roiled up this most unsettled portion of the world. We hope calls for a cease fire and resumption of diplomatic efforts in the area can restore some semblance of peace in this region.

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