Netanyahu thanks Kerry for support

Netanyahu thanks Secretary of State John Kerry for his support during the operation, and says he had another “very good” conversation with Kerry this afternoon. He welcomes Kerry’s calls for disarmament of the Gaza-based terror groups. He says Hamas is responsible for the destruction and death in Gaza.

The prime minister then switches to English on behalf of the foreign press in attendance, and screens the video of a Hamas rocket launch from a Gaza City residential area shown on Indian TV earlier this week, and a Finnish TV report on a rocket launch from Shia Hospital. He says that having left the Gaza Strip, journalists are now free to publish what they saw there, namely that Hamas is firing from civilian areas.

— Raphael Ahren