Former US president Jimmy Carter said he was holding back tears when surveying the destruction in Gaza following Israel's Operation Cast Lead earlier this year, Israel Radio reported Tuesday.
Carter said that it was discomforting to see the devastation in Gaza but also to see Kassams falling on Sderot.
The way to stop this is through dialogue and peace, Carter told reporters.
Carter was in Gaza on Tuesday for a meeting with Hamas leaders in which he said he would try to persuade Hamas leaders to accept the international community's conditions for ending its boycott of the group. Carter added that after his talks in Gaza, he will meet with officials in the Obama administration.
The former president is also due to deliver a letter by the parents of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit to Hamas and is due to meet with his father, Noam Schalit, upon his return from Gaza, Israel Radio reported.
On Tuesday morning, top Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said his movement would consider giving Schalit a letter delivered by Carter.
Zahar told Israel Radio on Tuesday that if Israel wanted to end the Schalit saga, it should free all the prisoners Hamas was demanding.
Zahar said that Egypt was yet to invite the group to resume indirect talks over securing Schalit's release, adding that the previous negotiations were halted due to Israel's insistence on not freeing prisoners from east Jerusalem and the Arab-Israeli sector.
He claimed Israel was not interested in reaching a prisoner swap deal, but rather wanted to get information on Schalit's whereabouts in order to try and free him in a military operation.
Zahar criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's policy speech delivered Sunday, saying that he set impossible conditions for the Palestinians - to give up on the right of return and Jerusalem.
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