PM Netanyahu's Remarks at his Meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Tuesday, 22 July 2014), at the =

Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, made the following remarks at his meeting wit=
h =

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

"Mr. Secretary, I appreciate the fact that you came here and that you took =

time to see what we=92ve just shown you. I think it=92s clear that Israel i=
s =

doing what any country would do if terrorists rained down rockets on its =

cities and towns =96 hundreds of rockets, day after day, week after week. I=
n =

addition, as I=92ve shown you, Hamas has dug terrorist tunnels under =

hospitals, mosques, schools, homes, to penetrate our territory, to kidnap =

and kill Israelis.

Now, in the face of such wanton terrorism, no country could sit idly by. It =

would exercise its right, inherent and legitimate right of self-defense as =

we are doing, and act decisively to end the threat to its citizens. This is =

what Israel is doing. We did not seek this escalation, Mr. Secretary. We =

accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal. I don=92t need to remind you it w=
as =

a proposal that was supported by the UN, by the Arab League, by the United =

States, by Europe. Hamas rejected it. We accepted the humanitarian ceasefir=
e =

proposal that the UN proposed afterward. Hamas rejected that. We accepted =

the ceasefire proposal of the Red Cross in Shejaia. Hamas rejected that, =

twice. I think the international community must take a clear stand; it must =

hold Hamas accountable for consistently rejecting the ceasefire proposals =

and for starting and prolonging this conflict. The international community =

must hold Hamas accountable for its increasing and indiscriminate attacks o=
n =

Israeli civilians. And the international community must hold Hamas =

accountable for using Palestinian civilians as human shields deliberately =

putting them in harm=92s way, deliberately keeping them in harm=92s way.

Mr. Secretary, we have made every effort and will continue to make every =

effort to avoid civilian casualties. We are targeting Hamas terrorist =

targets. We=92ve just shown you these targets, embedded in civilian areas, =

embedded in mosques, embedded in hospitals, embedded in agricultural =

schools. Hamas is embedded in there in order to sustain civilian casualties=
, =

because they know that we will have to protect our citizens; that we have t=
o =

act against their targets. So they are committing a double war crime: both =

targeting our civilians and hiding behind their civilians. And they want, I =

repeat: They want more civilian casualties, whereas we want no civilian =

casualties at all, and we=92re taking the utmost pain to minimize that. I =

think the people of Gaza, and that=92s become absolutely clear to the world=
, =

are the victims of the brutal Hamas regime. They are holding them hostage =

and they are hiding behind them.

You know, Mr. Secretary, the international community has pressed us to give =

cement to Gaza to build schools, hospitals, homes. And now we see what has =

happened to those deliveries of cement. They have been used to dig tunnels =

next to a kindergarten, not to build a kindergarten but to build a tunnel =

that penetrates our territory so that Hamas can blow up our kindergartens =

and murder our children. They=92ve used for a long time our willingness to =
try =

to keep civilians at a minimum. They=92ve been using them to keep on firing=
at =

us. We have even opened up a field hospital, Mr. Secretary, to help Hamas =

civilians, and Hamas is preventing civilians of Gaza from going to our =

hospital. I believe that you understand this. I believe that you understand =

that it is the right of every state to defend itself. And Israel will =

continue to do what it needs to do to defend its people.

Mr. Secretary, this is not only our right; this is our duty."

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon Meets with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
(Communicated by the Defense Ministry International Media Advisor)

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, today (Tuesday, 22 July 2014), made the =

following remarks at the start of his meeting with UN Secretary General Ban =

Ki-moon:

"Welcome Secretary General. You're most welcome in our country Israel.

We very much appreciate your sincere intentions to put an end to the =

violence in the region.

As you know, we are engaged now in the 15th day of Operation Protective Edg=
e =

which was actually initiated by Hamas, its provocations of rocket launches =

on our civilians and it has been deteriorated and now we are trying to stop =

it by all means - to stop the violence. Unfortunately we have here in the =

Gaza Strip a terror entity led by Hamas with other terror factions, =

violating international law and order and international law, by using =

rockets and all kinds of terror targeting deliberately our civilians and =

using their own civilians as human shield. This is a challenge for us, =

myself as the Defense Minister and the Israel Defense Forces how to confron=
t =

and stop this kind of terror.

We do our utmost to avoid civilian casualties, but it is almost impossible =

in this populated area in Gaza which is used by Hamas as a launching pad fo=
r =

rockets and of course as a base for the terror offensive.

We will show you later on all kinds of tools used by Hamas; how they launch =

rockets from schools, mosques, neighborhoods and so forth, and the way that =

they use now underground tunnels trying to attack our civilians and =

communities around the Gaza Strip, which is a relatively new challenge, =

which we have to stop as well.

I hope in this visit you will have a better understanding of the challenges =

ahead of us. Israel is a democracy and a member of the United Nations and =

we look forward to the international support in the way that we believe tha=
t =

this threat should be confronted. We are ready and determined to continue =

this operation until we stop this wave of violence against our civilians.

Thank you." =

________________________________________
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