Netanyahu pledges to intensify Israeli offensive against Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said on Tuesday that Hamas has left us no choice but to intensify the military offensive in Gaza after truce plan offered by Egypt did not work out.  Almost 200 people had died in Gaza as result of Israeli shelling during the past 8 days whereas one Israeli citizen died due to missile launched by Hamas.

Egypt had tried to broker a truce between Palestine and Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister indicated to accept the agreement. However, Hamas refused to accept the terms of the truce agreement without detailed assurances that Gaza’s borders will be opened, particularly the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the territory’s main gate to the world.  Hamas official has said that they were not provided with the official draft of the truce plan and thus is not acceptable.

Israeli Prime Minister has wasted not a single moment to use the refusal of the truce plan by Hamas to ramp up the offensive in Gaza strip which has killed about 200 people including 30 children.

Netanyahu said in a televised statement, “This would have been better resolved diplomatically, that’s what we tried to do when we accepted the Egyptian truce proposal today.”

Israeli Prime Minister further added, “But Hamas leaves us no choice but to expand and intensify the campaign against it.”

Netanyahu’s remarks came shortly after the army and emergency services announced an Israeli civilian was killed by a projectile that hit near the Erez crossing into the Gaza Strip, the first in the conflict in which 194 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since July 8.

In televised remarks, Netanyahu also addressed criticism from members of his cabinet earlier in the day, when Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman slammed the Israeli acceptance of the Egyptian truce and Netanyahu’s “hesitance”, saying Israel should conquer Gaza and expel Hamas from it.

Netanyahu has fired deputy defence minister Danny Danon for his vocal ciricism of the Prime Minister by calling him a failure.

In the mean time Israeli government is mulling over possibility of ground incursion if necessary to “significantly hamper the terror group”.

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Posted by Maleeha Tareen on Jul 16 2014. Filed under Latest News, Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.