Hamas to blame for civilian dead in Gaza – Netanyahu

WASHINGTON, USA – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, July 13, Hamas was to blame for all civilian casualties in Gaza, as he defended Israel’s use of air strikes to counter rocket attacks from the territory.

Despite international calls for a ceasefire, Netanyahu told American television audiences Israel would not quit until it had achieved “sustainable quiet and security for our people.”

“We use whatever means are necessary to defend our people, as would the United States or any other government faced with such a predicament,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation, when asked whether Israeli ground forces would go into Gaza.

Netanyahu’s defense of Israeli tactics came as the toll from Israeli air strikes in Gaza rose to 162, and after the UN Security Council on Saturday urged both sides to end the hostilities.

Netanyahu argued, however, that Hamas was to blame for any civilian casualties because it was embedding rockets and command posts “in homes, hospitals, next to kindergartens, mosques.”

“So naturally, they are responsible for all the civilian deaths that occur accidentally,” he said. “We’re sorry for any accidental civilian deaths, but it’s the Hamas that bears complete responsibility for such civilian casualties.” – Rappler.com