AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL: Australian foreign inster urges Isrealis and Palestinians to exercise restraint

Record ID: 397570

  • Title: AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL: Australian foreign inster urges Isrealis and Palestinians to exercise restraint
  • Date: 17th November 2012
  • Summary: SHAAR HANEGEV, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 17, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS PICKING UP EQUIPMENT
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Australia, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEIPZ9AQ1WVKSPCV4LSE4LS88Z
  • Story Text: Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr spoke on an Australian Broadcasting Corp show on Saturday (November 17) about the escalating violence between Israel and Palestine and urged both sides to exercise restraint.
    "Again, the word restraint by both sides. To urge a protection of civilians so we don't see, we don't see people who are not in the military, not in the militia, pay with their lives, with their houses, their families for this conflict. So, to urge protection for civilians. That's a plea directed at Israel as it contemplates the possibility of ground action. It's a plea to the people who are firing rockets, firing them at civilian centres in Israel," said Carr.
    Israeli soldiers were being deployed along Gaza's border after Israel's cabinet authorised the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing the ground for a possible Gaza invasion after Palestinians fired a rocket toward Jerusalem for the first time in decades.
    The move did not necessarily mean all would be called into service.
    As dawn broke on Saturday, many were being briefed by commanders and preparing vehicles for a possible offensive.
    Carr expressed the need for both side to talk to each other.
    "Talk is the alternative to rockets being fired and to ground retaliatory ground action. Don't disparage talk. This would be a whole lot healthier, the whole Middle East, if the two sides were at a table talking to one another. Talking about the resolution of the final status issues that enables as a fundamental outcome, a Palestinian State side by side with a secure Israel. We've got to keep returning to those fundamental," he said.
    Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre, also came under rocket attack for the second straight day, in defiance of an Israeli air offensive that began on Wednesday (November 14) with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border attacks that have plagued southern Israel for years.
    Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for firing at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel said the rocket launched toward Jerusalem landed in the occupied West Bank, and the one fired at Tel Aviv did not hit the city. There were no reports of casualties.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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