Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed Tuesday that the Palestinian leadership is doing its best to release the captured Israeli soldier. President Abbas told a joint press conference in Ramallah with the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that Israel and the entire world should realize the suffering of ten thousands Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, some of them spent more than thirty years.
According to WAFA, he welcomed the American efforts for a ceasefire and making just, last and comprehensive peace in the region.
President Abbas called for an immediate halt of Israel's aggressions on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank so as to re-launch the peace process to end the conflict and the occupation. He also called for stopping the aggression waged on Lebanon, urging for starting negotiations with the Lebanese government to end the crisis faced by the Lebanese people.
President Abbas pointed out that the Palestinian factions are exerting great efforts, specially after reaching an agreement on the Prisoners' Document, to form a Palestinian government whose program will be based on the international and Arab legitimacies.
For her part, Rice said the United States wants an "urgent and enduring" peace in the Middle East, where people can solve problems without resorting to war.
Rice said that briefed President Abbas on the efforts the Americans are making to bring about an urgent and enduring ceasefire in Lebanon. "I assured the President that the we have grave concerns about the sufferings of innocent people … in that regard we talked of course about the fact that even as the Lebanon situation resolves, we must remain focusing on what is happening here in the Palestinian territories."
She expressed hope that the Bush vision of a two state solution, which is also a vision of President Abbas, will be a reality on the ground.
She also said that it is important to end the Gaza crisis, saying she knows that President Abbas is working hard to do that and create conditions on which the crisis can end.
Rice pledged to President Abbas that her country will continue work of bringing a two state solution to the people of Palestine and the people of Israel.
On its part, Hamas has categorically accused the American administration of being the main party in the ongoing Israeli aggressions on Lebanon and Gaza Strip, warning that Rice's new Middle East vision was meant to consolidate Israel's supremacy in the region.
Hamas' remarks came in a statement the Movement issued Monday as Rice started her visit to the region.
The Movement added that Washington has displayed flagrant bias in favor of the Hebrew state over the past decades, which reflects the volume of the conspiracy against the Arab world and the continuous attempts to turn around the political will of the region's peoples. "The USA is deeply involved in the ongoing Israeli onslaught in Lebanon and Palestine through the political cover it provides for the Hebrew state in the international arenas, and the non-stop military and munitions supplies to Israel in absolute disrespect to international laws and conventions", the statement read.
On the ground, Israeli warplanes at dawn Tuesday fired a number of missiles Palestinian homes in Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza cities in the Strip wounding 11 Palestinian civilians, medical and local sources reported.
Witnesses said that the Israeli, American-made, F-16 warplanes blasted a house in Brazil suburb in Rafah, owned by a member in the Qassam Brigades the armed wing of Hamas Movement, and wounded six civilians in the process.
