ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he won't accept any ceasefire proposal that won't allow Israel to finish the destruction of Gaza tunnels used by militants

Record ID: 401271

  • Title: ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he won't accept any ceasefire proposal that won't allow Israel to finish the destruction of Gaza tunnels used by militants
  • Date: 31st July 2014
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JULY 31, 2014) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU CONVENES CABINET MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYING: "So far we neutralised scores of terror tunnels and we are determined to complete this mission with or without a ceasefire. Therefore, I won't agree to any proposal that will not enable the Isr
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2014 13:00
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  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADWBPUCSNZ0KIIEOO3KDKKTTP6
  • Story Text: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing international alarm over a rising civilian death toll in Gaza, said on Thursday (July 31) he would not accept any ceasefire that prevented Israel from completing the destruction of Gaza tunnels used by militants.
    The Israeli military estimated on Wednesday that accomplishing that task would take several more days.

    "We are determined to complete this mission with or without a ceasefire," Netanyahu said in public remarks at the start of a meeting of his full cabinet in Tel Aviv.

    "I wont agree to any proposal that will not enable the Israeli military to finish this important task, for the sake of Israel's security."
    Leaving open the option of widening a ground campaign in the Hamas Islamist-dominated Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said it had called up an additional 16,000 reservists. A military source said they would relieve a similar number of reserve soldiers being stood down.
    Netanyahu's security cabinet on Wednesday approved continuing operations launched on July 8 in response to a surge of cross-border rocket attacks. Israel also sent a delegation to Egypt, which has been trying, with Washington's blessing, to broker a ceasefire.
    Gaza officials say at least 1,372 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the battered territory and nearly 7,000 wounded. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza clashes and more than 400 wounded. Three civilians have been killed in Palestinian shelling in Israel.
    In the absence of a deal, Israel has ordered its ground forces to focus on locating and destroying a warren of tunnels through which Hamas has menaced its southern towns and army bases.

    "Progress has been satisfactory and we are completing our treatment of the terror tunnels," Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Thursday. "During the fighting, soldiers are finding new tunnel shafts and they are also being neutralised."
    Three Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday by a booby trap detonated as they uncovered a tunnel shaft, the army said. Military losses are more than five times those from the last Gaza ground war, in 2008-2009, but Israeli opinion polls show strong public support for fighting on until Hamas is quelled.
    Israel briefly observed a July 15 ceasefire proposed by Egypt but Hamas continued attacks, saying its conditions had been ignored. Egyptian officials say they put together a revised truce plan this week that had been provisionally accepted by Israel, though Hamas was still undecided.
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