Jerusalem – Israel’s prime minister has defended the actions of Israel’s military in the recent war in the Gaza Strip, saying the heavy civilian casualties were caused by Hamas.
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Speaking to international journalists, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s intense bombardment of Gaza was a necessary response to Hamas attacks.
“It was justified. It was proportionate,” he said.
Nearly 1,900 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian medics. Israel says some 900 Palestinian militants were among the dead.
Netanyahu said he regretted “every” civilian death, but that Hamas was responsible because it carried out attacks from civilian areas.
In his speech, Netanyahu emphasized how careful the IDF was to prevent civilian casualties.
He showed videos displaying Hamas’s use of human shields and firing of rockets from populated areas.
“Hamas uses civilian deaths as PR fodder,” the prime minister said. “Can we accept a situation where terrorists are exonerated, and victims accused.”
The prime minister spoke of the importance of a demilitarized Gaza and praised US Secretary of State John Kerry’s view that disarming Gaza terror groups was an important long-term goal.
Netanyahu issued a statement Tuesday praising the IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) for neutralizing the terror tunnels from Gaza, but reiterated that there is no guarantee of 100 percent success.
“This was a complicated action taken by heroic soldiers under difficult combat conditions,” Netanyahu said.
He said the tunnels’ destruction harmed a strategic Hamas weapon in which they invested tremendously over the years. The tunnels would have allowed Hamas to kidnap and murder numerous civilians and IDF soldiers in simultaneous attacks from a number of different tunnels that penetrated into Israel.
“As I said at the beginning, there is no guarantee of 100% success, but we did everything to achieve the maximum,” the prime minister said.
Netanyahu sent his condolences to the bereaved families of the fallen soldiers, and said that in his conversations with each family, he stressed that their sons fell in the most just battle possible.
natanyahu told bereaved families–“their sons died in most just battle possible”. Yes Mr. Prime Minister – but job has to be completed that no more rockets terrorize Israelis —otherwise they may have died in an “UNJUST BATTLE”. TIME TO FINISH THE JOB FOR THE SAKE OF THE FALLEN!!!!