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Israel's FM in France stands firm on Gaza attack
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday again rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy who embarks on a Middle East peace mission next week. Livni emerged from a one-hour meeting at the Elysee presidential palace and said Israel would decide in due course when to halt its military offensive against Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. "The question of whether it's enough or not will be the result of our assessment on a daily basis," said Livni, who rejected France's call for a 48-hour truce to provide humanitarian relief after six days of Israeli air strikes. "We understand that while operating in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, we need to ease the life of the civilian population," she said. "In this operation, Israel distinguishes (between) the war against terror, against Hamas members, from the civilian population. In doing so, we keep the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip completely as it should be." France made a fresh push for a ceasefire in Gaza as Livni arrived in Paris for talks despite Israel's rejection of calls for a temporary truce. Posted by: Fred 2009-01-02 |
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