Eveniment

'Gazans are killed for change in equation'

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:51:48 GMT






Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni says military operations in the Gaza Strip are aimed at changing the 'equation' in the region.

The Israeli official on Monday defended the military incursion into the Gaza Strip saying that prior to "the military operation the equation was that Hamas targeted Israelis, while we showed restrained and this is something that we stopped in the day that we initiated military operation." she said.

"This is no longer to be the equation, when Israel is being targeted, Israel is going to retaliate because this an ongoing long battle, war against terror."

Israel launched all-out airstrikes on the costal strip on December 27, before extending the operation to a ground incursion on Saturday. The military campaign has so far left over 531 Palestinians killed and some 2,750 others wounded.

Livni justified the killing of Gaza citizens as Israel's right to 'self-defense' and called Hamas 'a terror organization' that has targeted Israel for eight years.

This is while Hamas, the democratically-elected government of the costal strip, had announced that it would halt the retaliatory launch of rockets, if Israel lifted an extensive blockade that brought the sliver to the brink of a humanitarian crisis.

Despite the Annapolis agreements, Israel put the Gaza Strip under blockade for more than 18 months. The siege left civilians with no electricity and no communications and the 1.5 million residents of the region faced critical food and medical shortages.

"Hamas works with Iran, he gets weapons from Iran, and its headquarters are in Damascus, and it works closely with Hezbollah," Livni added, accusing Iran of sending weapons to the Gaza Strip.

The Islamic Republic has strongly rejected allegations that it provides military supports for foreign factions, including Hamas. The accusations are leveled against Iran while Hamas fighters have but homemade rockets and a small number of frustrated old light weapons.

Livni's comments come as the international community has been calling for an immediate halt to the ongoing onslaught and crisis in Gaza.

RZS/MMN

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=80692&sectionid=351020202