Ehud Barak
Announcement on the Start of the Israeli Ground Offensive
January 3, 2009
"We
are peace seekers..."
Video of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's
Statement on the Israeli Ground Invasion of the Gaza
Strip on January 3, 2009
Text of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's
Statement on the Israeli Ground Invasion of the Gaza
Strip on January 3, 2009
A few hours ago,
Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip as part
of operation Cast Lead against the Hamas terrorists
and their affiliates and infrastructure in
Gaza.
So far, the Israeli
Defense Forces have dealt an unprecedented heavy blow
to Hamas. In order to complete their mission we now
launched the ground operation.
I have said all along
that our military activities will widen and deepen as
much as needed. Our aim is to force Hamas to stop its
hostile activities against Israel and Israelis from
Gaza, and to bring about a significant change in the
situation in southern part of Israel.
We have carefully
weighed all our options. We are not war hungry but we
shall not, I repeat — we shall not allow a
situation where our towns, villages and civilians are
constantly targeted by Hamas. It will not be easy or
short, but we are determined.
We are well aware of
the humanitarian aspect and are doing and will
continue to do everything possible to provide all
humanitarian needs to Gaza.
While we are fighting
in Gaza, we keep an open eye on the sensitive
situation in our northern border. We have no
aggressive intentions there. We hope the situation
there will remain calm; nevertheless we are ready and
alert to face any unwarranted development in that
area.
We are peace seekers.
We have restrained ourselves for a long time but now
is the time to do what needs to be done. We are
determined to afford our citizens what any citizen
anywhere in the world is entitled to — peace,
tranquillity and freedom from threats.
This
map from Unosat
presents a preliminary situation of the
reported attacks by Israeli and Hamas forces
from 25-30 December 2008, within and
surrounding the Gaza Strip. Damage locations
have been taken exclusively from open media
sources. Many recorded damage sites shown are
approximate and may not represent all known
incident locations.
Map scale for A3: 1:115,000
;Projection: UTM Zone 36 North ; Image Copyright
: Digital Globe 2008 ; Incident Data : AP,
Reuters, BBC, AFP, YNet, NYT, Al-Jazeera,
Haaretz, Jerusalem Post ; Map Production :
UNOSAT (31 December 2008)
Links and Resources
on the Gaza Strip Conflict/Gaza War:
Wars
and Conflicts of Burma/Myanmar
--The Wars and Conflicts
of Burma/Myanmar from the Anglo-Burmese Wars to the
pro-democracy Myanmar uprising of 2007.
Israel-Lebanon
Conflict--*New*--Background
information on the decades-long warfare and
conflict along the Israel/Lebanon
border.
Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict--*New*--Background
information on the long-running warfare between
Israel and the Palestinians!
Israeli-Palestinian
Battles and
Campaigns--*New*--Specific
information on the warfare raids, battles,
terrorist attacks, and retaliations between Israel
and the Palestinians!
Waziristan
War----The
War on Terror expands to Pakistan's Northwest
Frontier!
Hamas----The
terrorist/resistance group now ruling the
Palestinian Authority!
