U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Israel trying to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop the offensive in Gaza aimed at eliminating the terrorist threat to Israeli citizens.
Kerry reportedly made little progress with Netanyahu, who was enraged at the United States placing a ban on airlines flying into Ben Guiron International Airport for two days. The FAA lifted the ban just before midnight Thursday.
Two senior State Department officials told the Washington Post that Kerry is trying to find a way to get a cease-fire done so he can work on a long term peace agreement.
Another sign that Israel is paying little attention to Kerry’s attempts to get them to stop defending themselves from Hamas was a statement from Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon to troops about expanding the ground campaign.
“We are preparing the next stages of the fighting after dealing with the tunnels, and you need to be ready for any mission,” Yaalon told the soldiers. “You need to be ready for more important steps in Gaza, and the units that are now on standby need to prepare to go in.”
Hamas reiterated they will continue to fire rockets at Israeli citizens until they obtain their demands.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood up to the head of the United Nations during a joint press conference, calling out Ban Ki-Moon for elevating Hamas to a position other than a terrorist organization.
U.N. head Ban Ki-Moon told reporters at a press conference that the two sides need to “stop fighting, start talking.” He went on to talk about how too many Palestinian and Israeli mothers are burying their children because of the conflict. He also began to push the two-state solution saying nothing else was viable.
That’s when Netanyahu challenged him on his fundamental basis for the comments.
“You spoke about the regional developments,” responds Netanyahu at their joint press conference in Tel Aviv. “What we are seeing here with Hamas is another instance of Islamist extremist that has no resolvable grievance. Hamas is like ISIS, like al-Qaeda, like Hezbollah, like Boko Haram.”
“What grievance can we solve for Hamas? Their grievance is that we exist.”
Netanyahu said that Israel will continue to defend themselves in any way they feel is necessary to stop the terrorists.
After the Hamas terrorist organization fired missiles into Israel during and immediately after a “humanitarian cease fire”, the Israeli Defense Forces have launched a ground offensive into the Gaza strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue the offensive until Gaza has been “demilitarized”. He said that only when Gaza has been demilitarized can peace truly begin to come into the region because the terrorist threat from Hamas will have been eliminated in south Israel.
The initial wave of the ground offensive is aimed to destroy the tunnels that Hamas would use to attempt to sneak into Israel and to move weapons unseen throughout the Gaza region.
Hamas reportedly fired more than 100 rockets within the hour after the cease-fire, leading military experts to believe Hamas used the five hour window of peace to plan a massive offensive against Israel.
The IDF warned civilians to leave Gaza hours before the start of the ground offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Hamas is conducting a double war crime in firing rockets at Israeli citizens while at the same time using innocent Palestinian citizens as human shields.
The prime minister spoke to reporters this morning taking questions about the ongoing Israeli response to Hamas’ continual terrorist attacks.
“Israel will continue to do what it needs to do to defend itself until peace and quiet are restored,” Netanyahu said. “[The] most important step for the international community to insist on is the demilitarization of Gaza.”
Hamas said today they rejected the peace proposal that Israel had accepted from Egypt because “Egypt has too many interests within Israel” to be impartial.
Hamas fired over 60 rockets Wednesday, 37 of which made it through the Iron Dome defense system. Two Israeli citizens were slightly injured when a rocket destroyed by Iron Dome fell to the ground.
Air strikes against Hamas rocket launching positions resumed after Hamas flatly rejected a peace proposal from Egypt that would end the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Israel had approved the peace deal and had de-escalated their forces as per the outline set up by Egypt; however Hamas completely rejected the deal and immediately fired up to 50 rockets into Israel. Israeli officials then announced they would resume their offensive against Hamas because of the terrorist’s ongoing rocket campaign.
Israeli officials say that no one was hurt during the six-hour window that the IDF had scaled back and Hamas fired rockets into Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would likely intensify their campaign against Hamas because of their rejection of the cease-fire.
“If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease, and that appears to be the case, we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation,” he said in a statement.
While President Obama told a group of Muslim leaders that Israel had the right to defend itself from Hamas’ attacks, Secretary of State John Kerry announced he would skip visiting the region on his way home from talks with Iran in Geneva.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Friday that the current conflict in the Gaza Strip shows the importance of keeping control of the West Bank.
In a strongly worded statement, Netanyahu took several world leaders to task including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for their insistence that Israel give up control of the West Bank for a Palestinian State.
Netanyahu said that the fact Hamas has turned the Gaza Strip into a “terrorist bunker” shows that any land given up by Israel will just be used by Islamic terrorist groups to launch attacks upon Israel.
“I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan,” he said. “I told John Kerry and General Allen, the Americans’ expert: We live here, I live here, I know what we need to ensure the security of Israel’s people.”
Netanyahu noted that the West Bank is 20 times the size of Gaza and said the last thing Israel needs is “to create another 20 Gazas.”
Netanyahu also noted the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt that the Egyptians have sealed up to keep the terrorists from moving through their country.
“If we were to pull out of Judea and Samaria, like they tell us to, there’d be a possibility of thousands of tunnels,” Netanyahu said.
The White House coordinator for the Middle East is blasting Israel, saying they’re to blame for the ongoing violence in the region.
Philip Gordon, a special assistant to President Obama, took multiple shots at Israel while at the same time claiming to be the country’s strongest defender.
“Israel confronts an undeniable reality: It cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely. Doing so is not only wrong but a recipe for resentment and recurring instability,” Gordon said. “It will embolden extremists on both sides, tear at Israel’s democratic fabric and feed mutual dehumanization.”
Gordon called Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas a “proven…reliable partner” and singled out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for criticism because he would not restart negotiations with the Palestinians.
“How will Israel remain democratic and Jewish if it attempts to govern the millions of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank?” Gordon continued. “How will it have peace if it’s unwilling to delineate a border, end the occupation and allow for Palestinian sovereignty, security and dignity? How will we prevent other states from supporting Palestinian efforts in international bodies, if Israel is not seen as committed to peace?”
Gordon’s speech in Israel is the first time a senior White House official had addressed the Israeli people directly since President Obama’s visit in March 2013.
Islamic terrorist group Hamas attempted to send a group of terrorists inside the Israeli border to launch attacks from inside the country.
The Israeli Defense Forces drove back the terror squad that was attempting to sneak into the country north of the Gaza Strip from the ocean. The IDF exchanged gunfire with the group and killed at least four of the terrorists whose bodies were left on the beach.
Israeli officials say that the current assault, Operation Protective Edge, could continue for a significant length of time.
“It won’t end in a day and it won’t end in two days. It will take time,” Yitzhak Aharonovitch, the country’s Cabinet minister for internal security, told Israeli TV.
Israel has called up 40,000 more troops to be deployed throughout the country to prevent another group from attempting to take advantage of Hamas’ current actions and launch another assault on Israel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu alluded to the possibility of other attacks but mainly focused on Hamas an address to his Security Cabinet.
“The army is ready for all possibilities,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “Hamas will pay a heavy price for firing toward Israeli citizens. The security of Israel’s citizens comes first. The operation will expand and continue until the fire toward our towns stops and quiet returns.”
The kidnapping of three teenagers in Israel, including one that has U.S. citizenship, is becoming more evident the action of the terrorist group Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is speaking out about the incident, saying that “many indications point to Hamas’ involvement” in the kidnapping.
“The United States strongly condemns the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers and calls for their immediate release,” Kerry said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families. We continue to offer our full support for Israel in its search for the missing teens, and we have encouraged full cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian security services. We understand that cooperation is ongoing.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the government has confirmed Hamas’ involvement and they are placing responsibility for the kidnapping on the new Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas because they are backed by Hamas.
Hamas, while not making a claim to responsibility, praised the kidnappings and said as a group they “pay tribute to the heroes who are behind the kidnapping.”
A new crisis between Israel and its closest ally is developing because of the Obama Administration’s glowing support for a Hamas-supported government in Palestine.
Several key Israeli officials expressed their anger publicly concerning the U.S. State Department saying they are willing to work with the new Palestinian unity government that was built with the help of Hamas. Even U.S. officials identify Hamas as a terrorist group yet the State Department ignored that in their endorsement of the new government.
“I have to say I do not understand this American announcement,” said Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz. “You cannot present it as a Hamas government internally, then present it publically as a government of technocrats. If these (ministers) are people who identify with Hamas, Hamas identifies with them and appointed them, then they are representatives of Hamas. This is a Hamas government, and Hamas is a terror organization.”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki tried to avoid reporter’s questions about Hamas’ intimate involvement with the new Palestinian coalition.
“At this point, it appears that president Abbas has formed an interim technocratic government that does not include ministers affiliated with Hamas,” she said. “With what we know now, we will work with this government.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly was “betrayed and deceived” by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who told him that the U.S. would not recognize the new government immediately but then did so within five hours.
