MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) – Israeli military operations to halt rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel have not been completed, Israel’s military attache in Moscow said on Monday at a press conference at RIA Novosti.
“The operation is not completed. At this stage, Israel’s army remains in the territory of Gaza,” Vadim Leiderman said. “We retain the right to adequately respond to aggression from Hamas militants.”
Israel’s ambassador to Russia, Anna Azari, also did not exclude the possibility of renewing military operations in the Gaza Strip, which were halted on Saturday night when Israel unilaterally declared a ceasefire.
“We are in the first days of this unilateral decision and the army is still deployed within Gaza, and if our solution doesn’t work, then perhaps we will take other decisions to renew military operations,” Azari said.
“The purpose of the military operations in the Gaza Strip has never been and is not now to overthrow Hamas,” she said. “That has been said from the very beginning by everyone, starting with the government of Israel.”
“Even if Israel set this goal for itself, it is quite clear that an attempt by Israel to bring some other Palestinian power, for example, the Palestinian Authority, into the Gaza Strip would mean such a government was illegitimate,” the ambassador said.
She said that the aim of the military operations was and would remain to be “the issue of security for the peaceful inhabitants of the parts of Israel near Gaza.”
Israel started pulling troops out of Gaza on Sunday, more than three weeks after the start of its assault on the Palestinian enclave of 1.5 million. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised European leaders that Israel will finish the process “as soon as possible.”
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire at 2 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) on Sunday, saying it had achieved all its objectives. Several hours after Israel’s announcement, Hamas, which runs Gaza, also declared an immediate ceasefire, adding that the militants had given Israel a week to withdraw its troops.
Israel launched its attack on Gaza on December 27, targeting Hamas infrastructure in a bid to put an end to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants on Israeli border towns. The military operation left over 1,300 Palestinians dead, the majority of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis, 10 of them military personnel, lost their lives in the fighting.