Israel: Hamas Rocket Fire Must Be Stopped

[Al-Arabiya/Prime Minister's Office] Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - Prime Minister Olmert told Al-Arabiya television Thursday: Israel withdrew from Gaza approximately three years ago not in order to return to it. Is it the spirit of Islam to kill innocent children? To shoot rockets at kindergartens and at civilians? I do not think that this is the spirit of Islam. Hamas, which does this against the spirit of Islam, is the main reason for your suffering - for all of ours. I say to you in a last-minute call, you the citizens of Gaza, you can stop it. I know how much you want to get up in the morning to quiet, to take your children to kindergarten or school, the way we do, the way they want to in Sderot and Netivot. Hamas is the enemy of the residents - not only in Israel but in Gaza. We want to live as good neighbors with Gaza. We do not want to harm you. We will not allow a humanitarian crisis and that you should suffer from a lack of food or medicines. We do not want to fight the Palestinian people, but we will not allow Hamas to strike our children. Do not let the murderers of Hamas, which is acting against the values of Islam, put you in danger. Hamas is firing at us and at the power station that is supposed to supply electricity to Gaza. Tell them to stop shooting at innocents. I did not come here to declare war. I intend to reach peace with, not fight, the Palestinians. But Hamas must be stopped - and so it will be. I will not hesitate to use Israel's strength to strike at Hamas and Islamic Jihad.


2008-12-26 06:00:00

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