The Nigerian Senate has called for ceasefire in the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war, while urging the federal government take steps in collaboration with other countries to end hostilities.
The Senate which made the call at plenary on Tuesday, also urged the Federal Government to press for a two-state solution as a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis as earlier agreed by the United Nations in 1948.
The resolutions followed a motion sponsored by Senator Suleiman Kawu Sumaila (Kano South) and co-sponsored by 28 others.
Since the conflict broke out in October, thousands, including women, children and aid workers, have been killed and injured while residential buildings, schools, health facilities and worship centres have been bombed.
The two-state solution calls for the establishment of an independent state for Palestinians alongside that of Israel.
Senator Adamu Aliero (PDP, Kebbi), who presented the motion, said the casualty figures in the ongoing war were horrifying and that if not ended immediately, it might lead to World War III.
Senators who contributed to the debate, including Barau Jibrin (Kano), Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia) and Sani Musa (Niger), all condemned the killings on both sides and called for an immediate end to the hostilities.
Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, said, “What we need now is a ceasefire so that people who are being killed every day will no longer be killed. So many people have lost their lives; so many children have been left orphaned.
“All you see on television about the conflict are dead bodies and so forth. This is not acceptable. All this is not good for the modern world.
“We should add our voices to those of responsible people all over the world that Palestine and Israel should come together and accept the two-state solution for permanent peace to prevail in that region of the world.”
Abaribe said, “Having experienced the Nigerian civil war in 1967 as a child, an eye for an eye will lead to everybody not having eyes at all. I call for an immediate ceasefire and end to the conflict.”
In a rated development, the United States said Tuesday it opposed a new long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip by Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “overall security” of the territory following the war.
“Our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions and Gaza is Palestinian land and it will remain Palestinian land,” State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, told reporters.
“Generally speaking, we do not support the reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel,” AFP quoted Patel as saying.
Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, in 2005. It later imposed a blockade after Hamas militants seized control of the territory.
Patel said that the US agreed “there is no returning to the October 6 status quo,” referring to the day before a massive attack by Hamas.
“Israel and the region must be secure and Gaza should and can no longer be a base from which to launch terror attacks against the people of Israel or anyone else,” Patel said.
Netanyahu, in an interview Monday with ABC News, had said Israel would assume “overall security” over Gaza “for an indefinite period” after the war, which is now entering its second month.
CNN reports that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would “retain complete freedom of action to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip” once the war ends.
Speaking at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday morning, Gallant said that “at the end of this ‘campaign,’ Hamas, as a military organisation or governing body in Gaza, will cease to exist.” Gallant’s comments were published on the Ynet news website.
“There will be no security threat to Israel from Gaza, and Israel will retain complete freedom of action, to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip that poses any kind of threat,” Gallant could be heard saying on the Ynet recording.
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