Netanyahu Says ‘Additional Stages’ Lie Ahead<
By Hezki Ezra, Gil Ronen, INN

Publish: 7/10/2014, 9:04 PM

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered a short statement Thursday evening after a lengthy session of the Security-Diplomacy cabinet, which was devoted to Operation Protective Edge against Hamas’s terror machine in Gaza.

“The campaign is proceeding as planned,” he said, “but additional stages await us. We have struck Hamas and the sons of terror forcefully, and as the campaign wears on, we will deepen the damage to them.”

Netanyahu thanked the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet), for their operational activity. “They are making every effort to avoid hitting civilians, and if civilians are hit, it is only because Hamas purposely hides behind Palestinian civilians,” he explained.

The security establishment has successfully foiled numerous terror attacks on Israel, he said,“but a difficult, complex and complicated campaign lies ahead.”

He called on Israeli citizens to continue and display the civilian fortitude that is “a central pillar in our ability to carry on with the operation until our work is done, and we bring peace and quiet back to the cities of Israel,with G-d’s help”

“The most important thing for me, for all of us,” he added, “is to protect the lives of all Israeli citizens, and for that purpose, we all work together.”

Deputy FM Tells Ambassadors of Hamas War Crimes

By Yoni Kempinski, Ari Yashar, INN

First Publish: 7/10/2014, 8:20 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vVgzP2LfUTE#t=0

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) spoke with foreign ambassadors to Israel on Thursday, holding a conference at the Maccabiah Village Hotel in the coastal city of Ramat Gan.

Hanegbi noted that while Israel is making “surgical attempts” to target terrorist leaders and warn civilians to get out of the line of fire in Operation Protective Edge, Hamas is committing a “double war crime” by firing on civilian population centers while hiding behind civilians.

The deputy minister noted how Hamas has been using human shields, placing civilians on the rooftops of terrorist headquarters ahead of airstrikes in order to inflate the death toll and deter strikes.

If their tactic is successful and Gaza residents are hurt, Hanegbi noted “Israel will be accused and criticized and slandered, and will not be able to go on for a long time” with the mission.

The blood of everyone killed in Israel and Gaza during the confrontation “is on their hands, they are committing a war crime,” emphasized Hanegbi, adding that Israel are precisely the ones defending the lives of those living in Gaza by sending warnings and taking caution with the airstrikes.

Hanegbi concluded by saying that defending Israelis is “a sacred mission…our moral commitment. …We will not hesitate to do whatever is necessary to win this confrontation.”

IDF Official: Hamas Embedding Itself in Schools, Hospitals

By Ari Soffer and Uzi Baruch, INN

First Publish: 7/10/2014, 9:11 PM

A senior IDF official has told Arutz Sheva that the army has no choice but to launch a ground offensive into Gaza in order to stamp out rocket fire on Israeli civilians, because Hamas and other terrorist groups have embedded their military infrastructure so deeply into the civilian population that it is impossible to reach via air power without causing massive collateral damage.

In particular, the source said Hamas has hidden its missile stockpiles and even embedded launchpads specifically in schools and hospitals – callously using the most vulnerable members of society as human shields. At the same time, the Islamist group is not allowing civilians to leave the area; on the contrary, it is encouraging as many noncombatants as possible to “protect” its positions with their bodies.

As a result, he said, a ground invasion is all but inevitable.

‘Double war-crime’

Earlier Thursday, it was revealed that Hamas had told Gazans not to listen to IDF warningsof impending strikes, but to stay indoors and act as human shields.

The Israeli Air Force has used numerous methods – from phone calls and leaflets, to firing dud missiles before a strike (known as “knocking on the roof”) – to warn noncombatants prior to military strikes in their vicinity.

But the Hamas-run Gaza Interior Ministry said in a message to residents that the warnings “are designed to weaken our resolve and to sow panic and fear among us, in light of the failures of our enemies. We call on Gaza residents not to pay attention to these messages and not to leave their homes.”

In previous operations, IDF footage and photos have shown how Palestinian terrorists hide weapons and munitions in mosques, schools and other sensitive civilian sites, in direct contravention of international law. Some Israeli leaders have referred to this practice as a “double war-crime”: firing missiles indiscriminately at Israeli civilians, while using Palestinian Arab civilians as human shields.

During the current escalation Hamas has openly boasted about the “success” of this strategy, and the IDF has published extensive evidence of the practice.

Watch – Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu-Zuhri lauds the “success” of use of human shields:

Earlier Thursday, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett said Hamas was directly responsible for any civilian casualties in Gaza due to its “cowardly” tactics.

“Hamas has missile-launchers hidden in homes and in schools,” he said. “I myself was a commando fighter in Gaza and I saw missile-launchers in the living room of a home. When you do this you are killing your own children. Hamas is clearly responsible for the very unfortunate death of Arab citizens.”

82 Gazans have been killed since Operation Protective Edge began three days ago – 30 of them on Thursday – according to Gaza medical sources. Those figures have not been independently verified, but the majority are believed to be terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, killed in precision IAF strikes. Some, however, are civilians – and many of them were killed while heeding Hamas’s calls to protect terrorist infrastructure with their bodies.

The tactic is win-win as far as Hamas is concerned. In most cases, it knows that Israel will simply refrain from taking action if Israeli forces are aware of the presence of civilians in the vicinity; but when IDF forces are unaware of the presence of human shields – as occurred in a tragic episode on Tuesday – Hamas can score a propaganda victory by presenting civilian deaths as “proof” that Israel is killing Palestinian civilians.

The only way to thoroughly root-out the rocket launchers and terrorist infrastructure without risking heavy civilians casualties is therefore to face Hamas in the streets and allies of Gaza City, Rafiah and other urban areas where they are based.

And, as Middle East expert and Arutz Sheva contributor Dr. Mordechai Kedar pointed out in a recent article, that may be precisely what Hamas is trying to achieve.

Indeed Israel has managed to avoid serious casualties until now by relying on its extensive defensive measures – from a comprehensive network of bomb shelters to the Iron Dome missile defense system.

A ground incursion, however, is likely to be much more costly. Bearing that cost in mind, if – as looks all but inevitable at this point – the IDF does indeed embark on such a mission, the only acceptable outcome will be a route of Hamas and its allies, and a complete end to the rocket fire.