Jerusalem, May 4 (RHC)-- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says the situation in the Gaza Strip remains intolerable eight months after Israel's war on the besieged territory. Carter is on a three-day visit to Jerusalem and other occupied Palestinian territories.

Over the weekend, Carter said: "The situation in Gaza is intolerable. Eight months after a devastating war, not one destroyed house has been rebuilt and people cannot live with the respect and dignity they deserve."

Carter also blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, "as he is in charge, there will be no two-state solution and therefore no Palestinian state."

In addition, Carter said Israel "does not now and has never sincerely believed in a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine." In fact, Carter and his traveling companion, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, didn't even ask for a meeting with Netanyahu or anyone else from the Israeli regime because "it would be a waste of time," according to the former U.S. president.

The former U.S. president and Brundtland are part of a group known as The Elders, which includes other prominent world figures that describe themselves as "independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights."

Jimmy Carter is a major critic of Israel's policies against the Palestinian people. In his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid published in November 2006, Carter compared Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories with the apartheid system of South Africa while it was under white minority rule from 1948 to 1994.