Netanyahu: ‘If there is no ceasefire in Gaza, our answer is fire’

The Jerusalem Post ^ | Wednesday, July 16, 2014 | Herb Keinon

[Star Traveler]

The security cabinet met late on Tuesday night to determine the next steps in Operation Protective Edge, at the end of a topsy-turvy day that started with the prospect of a cease-fire and ended with dozens of Hamas rockets hitting Israel and intense retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Before convening the security cabinet, which some 12 hours earlier had approved a cease-fire brokered by Egypt that Hamas never accepted, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel would answer Hamas’s rejection of a truce with stepped-up attacks.

“If there is no cease-fire, our answer is fire,” Netanyahu said, adding that Hamas chose to continue the battle and “will pay the price for that decision.”

Earlier in the day, the prime minister recommended to the security cabinet that it accept a relatively vague Egyptian proposal that called for a 48-hour cease-fire, to be followed in Cairo by the Egyptian government acting as the middleman in negotiations between Israel and Hamas to secure a longer-term agreement.

Israel accepted the proposal for a cease-fire to begin at 9 a.m., but Hamas did not and continued raining rockets down on Israeli cities and towns. Six hours later, at 3 in the afternoon, Israel resumed military action.

[beethovenfan]

The graphic of the map of Israel should say “borders”, not “boarders”. Reduces the intended impact.