Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Hamas has continued to fire rockets at Israel, despite their recent request for a ceasefire.
"Hamas doesn’t even accept its own ceasefire. It’s continued to fire at us as we speak. Israel has accepted five ceasefires since this conflict began. Five. We accepted them and we implemented them," Netanyahu said on CNN’s "State of the Union."
"Now Hamas has floated that it wants a ceasefire beginning at 2 o’clock and they’ve attacked us after that, so they’re violating even their own ceasefire."
Hamas announced on Sunday that it would accept a "24-hour humanitarian ceasefire," in Gaza "as a preparation for the end of Ramadan and in response to the U.N. mediation." The announcement came less than a day after Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal to extend a humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours.
Netanyahu suggested he would not accept the latest proposal, and firmly maintained that Israel will take whatever action necessary to protect their people.
"Hamas is simply continuing all its operations and Israel will not let this terror operation decide when it’s convenient for them and not convenient for them to attack our people. When it’s convenient for them to restock and reload and when it’s not convenient for them," he explained.
Netanyahu echoed that position on CBS’s "Face the Nation" and NBC’s "Meet the Press," contending that a "ruthless terror organization" does not get to decide, on a whim, when they would like to stop and start attacks.
"We’ll determine what is important for our own security in the way that we can to protect our own people. Including working against these terror tunnels that they’re building against us. That’s how we’ll act. We’ll just act to protect our people," he told CBS.
The prime minister did not elaborate on what actions Israel would take to ensure that.
"I’m not going to talk about military operations," Netanyahu said. "I will say we have a right to defend ourselves. You just have to imagine the United States having eighty percent of its population under rocket fire and eighty percent of your people having to go to a bomb shelter within 60 or 90 seconds. That’s unsustainable … Imagine attacks by land, by sea, and by air. Obviously you’d take whatever action is necessary to protect your people and that’s essentially what Israel is doing. I can’t go into more information than that."
"I hope we achieve a sustainable quiet that will enable us to address the issue of demilitarizing Gaza, because I think that’s the real issue," Netanyahu said.
"If Hamas is weakened, discredited, and demilitarized then we may have a chance to work something with the more moderate forces and get a better future for all of us."
Israel has come under criticisms for attacks that have left civilians, including many children, dead. Israeli officials contend that any civilian death is the result of Hamas actions, and their decision to hide rockets in civilian locations and use their people as "human shields."
Netanyahu was clear that Israel would not limit their actions as long as Hamas continues to attack.
"We have not drawn any limits on our activity," Netanyahu said on "Meet the Press." "We do target Hamas. We do not target civilians, but we will take the actions that are necessary to defend our people—as any country would."