White House Puts Onus on Hamas to End Violence - NYTimes.com

White House Puts Onus on Hamas to End Violence - NYTimes.com

An aide to President-elect Barack Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, said he had discussed events in Gaza with Ms. Rice in an eight-minute telephone call initiated by Mr. Obama.

Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama, said that while Mr. Obama was monitoring global events, “There is one president at a time.”

In the campaign, Mr. Obama made statements that sounded similar to those issued by the Bush administration on Saturday.

“If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that,” Mr. Obama said in July. “And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

Mr. Johndroe said that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called Mr. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Saturday, and they discussed the situation.