Netanyahu: We Will Strike Anyone Who Tries to Harm Us

Prime Minister says that Israel is working to protect its citizens; United States urges Israel to show "restraint."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu makes a statement, August 22, 2013. Photo: PMO

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to Thursday's rocket attack from Lebanon by saying Israel was working on all fronts – both with defensive and active preventive measures – to protect Israeli citizens.

"We are deploying a wide range of means," he said in a statement, "both defensive and preventative. We are acting responsibly. Anyone who attacks us, or tries to attack us, should know that we will get him."

The United States is calling for "restraint" from both Israel and Lebanon after three rockets, fired from Lebanese territory, hit northern Israeli towns.

"We strongly condemn the firing of rockets from Lebanon toward Israel," State Department spokeswoman Dina Badawy told The Jerusalem Post. "This was a provocative act that undermines the stability of Lebanon and the security of Israel."

Badawy called the rocket fire a violation of the Blue Line, as prescribed by UNSCR 1701.
The State Department could not immediately confirm the source of the rocket fire, or details of the incident, Badawy said.

"We again strongly underscore the need for Lebanon to exercise full sovereignty over its territory," she said.
A fourth rocket was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome short-range missile defense system, which has been funded generously by the US.

No group has yet to claim responsibility for the incident, and no casualties were reported.
MK Motti Yogev (Bayit Yehudi), meanwhile called for the government to retaliate to rocket fire in the north Thursday.

According to Yogev, the government cannot leave the attack without a response, "because this is the reality that the other side understands." "The response must be very strong so that the other side has no desire to continue the escalation," Yogev added.

The Bayit Yehudi MK, a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, pointed out that Hezbollah stockpiled weapons in the seven years since the Second Lebbanon War and has tens of thousands of missiles, which, he said, could lead to a confrontation to ensure the safety of residents of the north.

"Syria acted quickly and determinedly through their allies, Hezbollah, to distract international pressure from the gas attacks and massacres on children in Damascus," MK Nachman Shai (Labor) stated. "Israel must act carefully and responsibly."

Source: Here