Four-Day Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas a step toward peace says Minister of Public Service

After a day of delay, the four-day cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is set to begin tomorrow morning. Today, the negotiators were able to strike a deal between the parties and bring ease to the hundreds of people suffering in Gaza. The diplomatic breakthrough promises to provide humanitarian relief to people in Palestine and allow for hostages on both sides to be released. Minister of Public Service Henry Charles Usher says the move is seen as a step toward peace but believes more needs to be done for a permanent solution.

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Constitutional Reform: “And I think it’s important to understand that the position is that there has to be a ceasefire. This call for a humanitarian pause to me I don’t know who came up with that term but whoever came up with that term is definitely some PR genius because there’s no such thing as a humanitarian pause. It’s like the eye of a hurricane. You don’t come out during the eye because you know the rest of the hurricane is coming. A humanitarian pause all it is is a time to breathe and then the bombing starts again ? There must be an immediate ceasefire and that has to be understood. The Government of Belize has condemned all terrorist action. They have condemned the response that Israel has done. It really as the UN Secretary General said is the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. It’s akin to genocide what’s happening there and we have to speak out against it. Now the step that government took is to just to show our seriousness about how much we support peace and we call on the international community to resolve this matter in a peaceful way and I think that’s important.”

We’ll keep following the peace deal and other developments in the Gaza Strip.