Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon (Monday, 12 November 2012), made the following remarks at a meeting in Ashkelon with the foreign ambassadors stationed in Israel:

 "If an alarm is sounded, all of us have exactly 30 seconds to find shelter. This is the situation<http://www.idf.il/1283-17526-EN/Dover.aspx> in which one million Israelis find themselves in. That’s families, old people, children, babies – Including like the children who stand here.

 A million Israelis, including many little children, like the ones here, are targeted on a daily basis, by people who took areas that we vacated, that the Government of Israel vacated, came in there, and are now hiding behind civilians, while firing on civilians, firing on our children. A million Israelis…

 I don’t know of any of your governments who could accept such a thing. I don’t know of any of the citizens of your cities, who could find that acceptable and something that could proceed on a normal basis. I think the whole world understands that this is not acceptable. It’s something that the people of Israel can’t accept and it’s something that I, as the Prime Minister of Israel, I cannot accept it.

 So we’re going to fight for the rights of our people to defend themselves. We’ll take whatever action is necessary to put a stop to this. This is not merely our right, it’s also our duty, and it’s something that I think is understood not only by you, who are here in Ashkelon today, but by any fair-minded person in any fair-minded government in the world they would understand that it’s our right to defend our people, and this is what we shall do."