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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Olmert: IDF response to deadly Gaza bomb attack still to come |
| 2009-01-28 |
| Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that the deadly Palestinian attack on an Israel Defense Forces convoy near the Gaza border earlier in then day was a "most serious incident," and vowed that Israel's military response was yet to come. "When do you think it'll get here, Ehud?" "Coupler three years." Olmert told the directors general of each government ministry that determining an appropriate response to the incident, which killed an Israeli soldier and wounded three others, was at the top of Israel's agenda. "What the IDF has done now [in Gaza] is not the response," Olmert said, referring to an IAF strike and clashes in the coastal territory, which followed the deadly attack. "Israel response is yet to come." Defense Minister Ehud Barak held talks on Tuesday afternoon with defense establishment officials to assess Israel's response. Barak told military academy cadets earlier Tuesday that the incident "is serious, and it cannot be accepted and we will respond. There is no benefit in specifying [the response]." Barak added that Israel's recent offensive in Gaza, code-named Operation Cast Lead, was "a very hard blow for Hamas." He said the campaign did not mean that Hamas would no longer be Israel's enemy, or that there would be no more attempted attacks along and inside the border, or no other incidents that Israel would have to respond to. "But in my estimation, we are on our way to a period that they will remember very well, like Hezbollah remembers the blow it absorbed in Lebanon two-and-a-half years ago," Barak said. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday said that Israel needed to respond immediately to the bomb blast on the Gaza border, emphasizing that there was no reason to exercise restraint. "If there is an incident on the border and someone shoots, there's a bomb there or the smuggling of arms, Israel needs to respond immediately," said Livni. One Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded near Gaza on Tuesday morning, in the first serious clash since a cease-fire went into effect in the coastal strip more than a week ago. Livni added: "Israel doesn't need to demonstrate restraint against terror in the Gaza Strip. This was true before the operation, and it is true after it." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 jaw jaw is over. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-01-28 01:40 |