KEY TALKING POINTS ON ISRAEL’S OPERATION IN GAZA

• Israel’s military action in Gaza is in response to the nearly constant barrage of rockets

and missiles launched by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza. Israel is

fulfilling its duty and responsibility to protect the people of Israel who have been

terrorized by the ongoing assault by Hamas.

• Israel’s action is directed against the Hamas terrorist infrastructure. For years, Hamas has

 built up its military resources and know-how with the sole intention of attacking Israel

and its population centers. Since Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza and Hamas’sviolent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Hamas has launched tens of thousands of 

rockets against cities in Israel’s south. Hamas temporarily eased its rocket attacks

following an Egyptian-brokered six-month “period of calm” in June 2008. As this period

drew to a close, Hamas began to once again fire rockets and mortars into Sderot,Ashkelon, and other densely populated centers in Israel’s south, launching more than

eighty rockets on December 24 alone.

•  No sovereign government in the world would stand by and allow its citizens to be under 

steady and heavy attack. In light of the unceasing attacks, Israel had no choice but to act

against Hamas and eliminate its operational capabilities.

• These rockets purposefully target vulnerable southern Israeli cities such as Sderot and

now, further north, to Ashkelon, Netivot and other nearby environs, landing in or near 

 private homes, schools, colleges, hospitals and daycare and recreation centers. Hamas hasused the past six months of the so called “cease-fire” to build up supplies and improve the

intensity and effectiveness of these attacks. Hamas has pledged that its artillery will soon

 be able to reach Israel’s heartland, threatening millions of Israeli civilians. Hamas’leadership has called for the resumption of suicide bombing attacks within Israeli cities

and the assassination of Israeli leadership.

• Hamas is attacking Israelis well within the internationally accepted borders of the State of 

Israel established in 1948.

• Israel is taking maximum precautions to avoid harming civilians in Gaza. The targets

chosen by the Israel Air Force are Hamas operational centers, most of which have beendeliberately located in densely populated areas. The targets include Hamas command

centers, training camps, rocket manufacturing facilities, storage warehouses and tunnels

 

used to smuggle arms. According to the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, and

confirmed in numerous media reports, “the vast majority of the casualties are terror 

operatives; most of whom were wearing uniform and working on behalf of terror organizations.”

• Israel has shown the utmost restraint in dealing with Hamas’ blatant hostility. Israel has

tried to stop the attacks through a variety of measures, including agreeing to the “period

of calm,” appealing to the international community for support in opposing Hamas

terrorism and legitimate military measures designed to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law. Sadly, none has succeeded in stopping the lethal rockets

 purposefully aimed at Israeli civilians going about their daily routines.

• Hamas bears sole responsibility for the situation in the Gaza Strip. It has refused to

comply with international demands to recognize Israel’s right to exist and cease terrorist

operations. It continues to launch scores of rocket attacks each day at Israeli population

centers. It cynically and deliberately puts ordinary Palestinians in harm’s way by

establishing its terrorist infrastructure – manufacturing, storage, training and strategic planning – within densely populated areas, in the midst of homes, schools, mosques and

hospitals.

• Hamas is an Islamic extremist terrorist organization that calls for the eradication of the

State of Israel. Both the United States and the European Union have designated Hamas as

a terrorist organization. Hamas (the Arabic acronym for Harakat Al-Muqawama Islamiyafi Filistin, or the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine) was established in 1988 by

Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, then a preacher with the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. Its ultimate

goal is the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian state ruled by Islamic theocratic law in place of the State of Israel. The Hamas covenant, issued in 1988, is replete with anti-

Semitism, and echoes the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion which charges Jews

with an international conspiracy to gain control of the world. In Hamas’ world-view,

Islamic precepts forbid a Jewish state in the area known as Palestine, and the Jewish people have no legitimate connection to the land of Israel. As its covenant proclaims,

“The land of Palestine is an Islamic trust... It is forbidden to anyone to yield or concede

any part of it... Israel will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it...” To this end, theleaders of Hamas have denounced compromise with Israel as a betrayal of the Palestinian

cause.

• Hamas continues to hold hostage Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped on June 25, 2006,

from a military installation near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom in southern Israel. In the attack,

two soldiers were killed and three wounded. Hamas has continued to refuse to provideinformation as to Cpl. Shalit’s health and condition.

• The State of Israel remains committed to a negotiated agreement with the Palestinian

Authority. Hamas is adamantly opposed to these negotiations. Israel fully redeployedfrom the Gaza Strip in August 2005, uprooting Israeli settlers and removing military

installations, in the hope that the Palestinians would govern Gaza responsibly and

 peacefully. Instead, four years later, the Hamas leadership has turned Gaza into an armed

 

camp, creating and maintaining the conditions for a humanitarian crisis, and forcing the

isolation of the Gaza population.