[An Nahar] Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair called on Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, on Thursday to stop firing rockets from Gazoo into Israel, saying that as long as it continued the Jewish state would act to defend itself."If the rocket fire carries on out of Gazoo, targeted at Israeli towns and villages, then the retaliation will increase," the former British prime minister told Sky News television in London.
Seven Paleostinians and three Israelis were killed on Thursday in a wave of unrelenting cross-border fighting as the Jewish state launched a vast air offensive on Gazoo which began with the killing of a Hamas commander on Wednesday.
"There are roughly a million people who take shelter every night (in Israel). There's no government where its citizens are under that pressure that isn't itself going to come under pressure to take action," Blair said.
"Likewise I understand the pressures on the Hamas leadership but the answer to those pressures I'm afraid is not to keep firing rockets. It's to find a different and better way forward."