Arab League chief says compromise only solution to Gaza war

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Arab League is “making every effort” to reach an understanding between Israel and Hamas to agree on a ceasefire and allow the exchange of prisoners, its chief told Rudaw on Wednesday. 

“We participate in every Arab effort whose first and foremost goal is to reach a ceasefire, then an agreement to exchange Palestinian and Israeli prisoners, start a political process, and establish a Palestinian state,” Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai. 

Gheit added that there is a general consensus among world powers that a Palestinian state “must” be established to end the conflict. He believes that talks to implement the two-state solution will commence after a ceasefire is reached. 

"The main way is compromise," he said. 

Israel declared war on Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip after the group launched a large-scale air, ground, and sea offensive and infiltrated Israeli territory on October 7. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to turn all Hamas-controlled locations into “islands of ruins.” 

Around 28,000 people have so far been killed as a result of Israeli offensives in the Gaza strip, according to the Palestinian health ministry, while 1,160 people were killed by Hamas raids on October 7, according to Israeli official figures.