U.S. President-elect Barack Obama pledged on Sunday that he will tackle hot issues in the Middle East as soon as he is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

"What I am doing right now is putting together the team so that on January 20th, starting on day one, we have the best possible people who are going to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process as a whole," he said in an interview with ABC News.

The team would "be engaging with all of the actors there. That will work to create a strategic approach that ensures that both Israelis and Palestinians can meet their aspirations," Obama said of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflicts in the Gaza Strip.

It was reported that nearly 900 Palestinians have been killed and some 3,500 others wounded in Israel's military strikes targeted at Hamas in the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008.

Obama repeated that he was "deeply concerned" about the situation in Gaza. But he said that it would be imprudent of him to send any signals that his incoming administration is running foreign policy.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2009)