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1. Israel is exercising its legitimate and recognized right of self-defense. Israel’s actions are aimed at protecting the citizens of southern Israel.
Sound-bite: Israel – like all other countries – has the right of self-defense. When its citizens are under attack, it has to defend them.
2. There has been no Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip since 2005.
Sound-bite: Israel left the Gaza Strip seven years ago and got rockets instead of peace.
3. No country in the world would accept with equanimity an ongoing deadly threat that disrupts the daily lives of its citizens.
Sound-bite: More than one million Israelis are being targeted by Hamas rockets. That is a reality no country can bear.
4. Israel appreciates the support of the international community for its actions taken in self-defense against the terrorism emanating from Gaza. The Prime Minister spoke again last night (Nov. 16) with US President Barack Obama and expressed his deep appreciation for the President\’s support of Israel\’s right to defend itself. Many other democratic states have issued statements of support for Israel’s self-defensive actions, including Canada, Australia, the UK, France and the EU (High Commissioner Ashton).
5. Israel directs its actions against the military targets of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. It goes to great lengths to minimize harm to civilians. Israel regrets any injury to civilians and places responsibility squarely on Hamas, which uses the residents of Gaza as human shields.
Sound-bite: Hamas is harming children on both sides: it fires on Israeli children and it hides behind Palestinian children.
Sound-bite: Hamas targets civilians. Israel targets terrorists.
Sound-bite: Israel does everything possible to prevent harm to Palestinian civilians. Hamas does everything possible to put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way.
6. It should be noted that the IDF made tens of thousands of phone calls to Gaza residents to warn them about the military operation. The IAF dropped flyers throughout the Gaza Strip calling for people to distance themselves from known terrorists, weapons stores and launching sites.
7. Hamas has denied requests by foreigners, in particular journalists, to exit Gaza for Israel. These attempts to manipulate and coerce the foreign press should be stopped immediately.
8. Israel calls on the international community to support efforts to eradicate terrorism and to put a complete and permanent stop to the shooting of rockets at civilians.
9. Israel believes that the peace treaty with Egypt is a strategic interest of both states and will continue to uphold it.
10. Israel is acting to protect its citizens. Israel has begun a call-up of reserve troops so that it will be prepared to broaden the operation, but only if the need should arise.
11. Israeli citizens support the operation and stand with the civilians living in the south. Their resilience in the face of terrible hardship is admirable.
Events Update:
Rockets:
More than 820 rockets have been fired at Israel since last Saturday (10 Nov.) of which 703 were fired since the start of Operation Pillar of Defense (14 Nov.)
Casualties:
Three Israeli civilians killed, 2 severely injured, 3 moderately and more than 60 lightly injured. In addition, six IDF soldiers were injured.
Military Actions:
Operation Pillar of Defense has obtained significant achievements and the terrorist organizations of Gaza have been hit hard.
The IAF (Israel Air Force) has significantly deteriorated the long-range Iran-made Fajr missile stores.
Israel accurately targeted Ahmed Jabari, chief of Hamas’ military forces, who was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis. It has successfully targeted many other terrorists, including the commander of Hamas’ anti-tank unit, regional Hamas commanders and rocket launching squads.
The IDF has targeted the headquarters buildings of Hamas in Gaza, including the offices of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, the Ministry of Interior, a police compound and training camps. To date, 800 objectives have been struck.