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Jerusalem acts to defend itself from Palestinian terror

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night that Jerusalem is “acting to defend Israel from the infiltration of forces that are coming to attack our communities,” while further underscoring that “There are two possibilities—either the blows that (Israel) deals (to Hamas) will produce a period of quiet, or will result in a humanitarian collapse in the Gaza Strip. That is why,” Netanyahu stressed that “Israel is willing for there to be involvement by other actors, such as the United Nations, Egypt and other regional powers.” While Prime Minister Netanyahu is reportedly actively seeking to avoid an escalation on the Gaza frontier, a senior political official in Jerusalem said that “His efforts are, unfortunately, not yielding results.” The official explained that contrary to declared pledges of support from the Arab world, “none of those countries volunteer to assist in rehabilitating the Palestinian enclave.”

The official further revealed that a majority of Arab countries have indicated that the Muslim World “would rather see Israel overthrow Hamas from Gaza and conquer the Palestinian enclave, once again” – “yet none of them is willing to take responsibility for the consequences of war and will demand Israel to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip, once Hamas is out of the equation.” The senior political official also revealed that according to an Israeli military assessment, “a major conflagration in Gaza would result in extensive IDF casualties, and – that was something that had to be taken into account before opting for that course of action.”