Mark Regev: Israeli fire 'measured and surgical'
Mark Regev, the Israeli ambassador to the UK and the spokesman for the Israeli prime minister during the last Gaza war, has blamed Hamas for inciting violence in Gaza on Monday.
He rejected widespread allegations that Israel had indiscriminately fired on Palestinians. Here's the link to the interview and excerpts from its first few minutes.
"We didn't want to see this violence in Gaza and we did everything we could to avoid it.
"We dropped leaflets urging people not to attack the border. We used social media, we used radio and television broadcasts.
"We didn't want to see it."
On why guns were used on largely peaceful protesters, who were armed with nothing more than "the odd rock"
"It's far more than the odd rock. You have people charging the fence with wire cutters, with explosives, with Molotov cocktails, with other weapons. We used live fire in only a very measured way in a very surgical way and only when there is no alternative."
"Their goal is clear and Hamas has articulated the goal.
"The leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar - and I am quoting him - says 'our goal is to breach the border, to get inside Israel and to kill Israeli citizens'.
"He said openly 'we want to tear out their hearts' - his words not mine."
On Gaza's ongoing protests
"I reject that and I reject the premise of your question that this is somehow a spontaneous protest. If people want to protest against Israel inside Gaza of course they can do so. They can't of course protest against Hamas, heaven forbid.
"If they are demonstrating inside Gaza no one would interfere, but we are talking about people storming the border, the idea to damage the border fence, and come into Israel and hurt our people on our side of the frontier. That is what Hamas themselves articulated.
"If one wants to talk about what happened 70 years ago... let's be clear the Palestinians were offered by the United Nations a state next to Israel 70 years ago. They said no. They should ask their own leadership why aren't they celebrating 70 years of an independent Palestine.
On conditions in Gaza and Hamas
"The people of Gaza live a very difficult life. But that’s because they live in a prison controlled by Hamas – a theocratic authoritarian regime that instead of investing its energy and resources into building a better life for the people of Gaza, invests its efforts in a holy war against Israel."
On Israeli use of force
"We used live fire in only a very measured way in a very surgical way and only when there is no alternative. You had some 40,000 people yesterday involved in violent riots on our border.
"There were continuous attempts to storm the border and breach the border. We have to protect our people. If we allow the Hamas terrorists to enter Israel we will have dead Israelis. We must protect our border."