Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israelis living along the border with the Gaza Strip were safer than they were before the start of Operation Protective Edge. Middle East Quartet special envoy Tony Blair and U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry both arrived in Cairo for the negotiations, and will be joined soon by Frank Lowenstein, the acting U.S. envoy for Middle East peace. Israel showed signs of expecting the truce to last by lifting official emergency restrictions on civilians living in the country's south, permitting more public activities and urging everyone to resume their routines. According to an Al Arabiya report, Israel and the Palestinians have reached an agreement in Cairo to extend the 72-hour truce, which ends Friday morning, by three more days. However, the report went on to say, the Palestinians warned that if their terms are not met, they would resume fire on Friday. Netanyahu said that Israel was prepared in the event the cease-fire fails. "We are prepared for anything, if this cease-fire is violated. The Israeli army is deployed in the field in buffered numbers to provide an answer in the event of any scenario. In any event, around the Gaza border area forces will remain that were not there before the campaign and that is in order to provide better security to residents of the region. The security situation of residents of the region is better and more secure than before the campaign," Netanyahu told foreign journalists at a news conference in Jerusalem. "The goal of this operation was to protect our people from the threat of terror tunnels built to send death squads into Israel, to commit terrorist atrocities against Israel's civilians, to kidnap and to kill. Israel deeply regrets every civilian casualty, every single one," he said. Netanyahu also rejected rumors that military leaders wanted to prevent further fighting, leading to an earlier end to the campaign. "The IDF is an amazing military," he said. "Our military is strong. It has made significant accomplishments in the battle against Hamas and has achieved all the goals it had set." He said he had spoken with many of the parents of the fallen soldiers, and promised to speak with all of them. "I am proud to be the prime minister of a nation that is so united, a nation that displayed so much generosity and love toward the residents of the south and the IDF soldiers fighting on our behalf," he said. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in an interview on the BBC's "Hardtalk" program, spoke of a need for Hamas to decommission its rocket arsenal. Netanyahu welcomed Kerry's remarks, calling them "very important." "I think the secretary's statement on the demilitarization as a strategic long-term goal is very important, I think he is right that there are opportunities now, perhaps opportunities that we have not seen before, with a realignment of important parties in the Middle East to be able to fashion a new reality, one more conducive to the end of violence, to the establishment of calm, sustainable peace, or at least a sustainable quiet which can lead to other things," he said. Hamas, which rules Gaza, has ruled out giving up its weapons. Kerry said that the two sides need to take "a bigger, broader approach to the solution of the underlying issues of two states," adding that he believes "this situation now that has evolved, perhaps, will concentrate people's minds on the need to go back to broader negotiations and try to resolve the issues of the two states." Asked about Israel's military action, he said, "No country can live with that condition [of rockets and terror tunnels] and the United States stands squarely behind Israel's right to defend itself in those circumstances, period." Kerry condemned Hamas' behavior, calling it "unbelievably shocking," but added that there had been "horrible collateral damage" in Gaza. Netanyahu expressed gratitude for Kerry's support for Israel and the demilitarization of Gaza, and stressed that the two are working together in close cooperation.
Credit: Reuters
Israel withdrew ground forces from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and started a 72-hour Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Hamas as a first step towards a long-term deal.
