News and Updates

In light of the IDF's operation in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed his election campaign in favor of the campaign to explain Israel's position to the world. After more than 13 interviews to central news stations in the past 48 hours, Netanyahu visited the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon in order to support residents in southern Israel and demonstrate to the foreign journalists accompanying him the impossibility of life under the rocket threat.

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Beginning of tour - Ashdod 11:00

The tour began with an introductory meeting with the press representatives who assembled in the city hall of Ashdod. However, the tour had really begun a few moments earlier, when a siren was heard, followed by two 'Grad' missiles which smashed into a neighborhood in Ashdod and in the nearby village of Shetulim.Netanyahu thanked Ashdod mayor, Yehiel Lassry, who volunteered to guide the group from city hall to the location where the missiles had landed. Netanyahu emphasized the importance of this kind of tour on a day like today: "This is an opportunity to explain to a global public the kind of terror the citizens of Israel are currently living under", said Netanyahu, "we will now go to the site where they landed and then continue to Ashkelon, a city which has also been the target of more than a few attacks".

On a small hill in a public garden

The journalists hurried back to the bus, which followed Netanyahu's car to the place where the missiles had fallen in Ashdod. There, next to a bus station, Ashdod resident Irit Shitrit, was killed yesterday by a Grad missile as she ran to find shelter. Netanyahu stood on a hill not far from the deserted bus station. Nothing in the quiet green garden hinted at the horror that had taken place there just a few hours earlier. "It gives you an understanding of what is going on here", Netanyahu told the journalists, "Tens of thousands of children in Israel are not going to school, hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians live under constant terror".One of the journalists made her way to the front of the group: "Hundreds of Palestinians are being killed now. Is the IDF operation proportional at all?". "While the terrorists hide behind civilians in order to increase the number of casualties", answered Netanyahu, "we are trying as much as we can to decrease the number of civilian casualties. Calculating events according to this standard will lead you to the conclusion that Britain was wrong and Germany was right in the Second World War, since the number of British bombing victims was much smaller than number of the Germans hit in retaliatory raids". From the hill, the group proceeded to the bus station where Shitrit had tried to find shelter. The small booth could not provide her sufficient protection from the powerful blast of the Grad missile. "Mrs. Shitrit sat here, the missile went through the metal and hit her", explained Netanyahu to the foreign journalists. "If a siren were to be heard now, we would have 40 seconds to get to a secure space. Since this bus station is not a secure space, as of now you will not be able to get to a secure space even if you were Olympic runners".

Ashkelon 13:00



After the tour in Ashdod, Netanyahu met the mayor of Ashkelon, Benny Waknin. School has been cancelled in Ashkelon ever since the city has become a daily target for Hamas' terrorists in Gaza strip. In order to continue the normal routine as much as possible even in the current situation, the city council has organized activities for kids in 8 cellars that host 1700 of them every day. Before Netanyahu can hear a few words about the project from Waknin, a man with a kippa suddenly shows up, puts his hand on Netanyahu's shoulder, and starts reading from a bible."Bring me my glasses, please", Netanyahu asks one of his assistants. Taking the bible in his hand and leafing through the pages, he turns to the unexpected guest: "Take a look at what is written here: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof". Waknin shows interest and Netanyahu cites another relevant verse from the Book of Amos: "But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza".

In the shelter with children, snakes and one goat



After a quick review of the situation in Ashkelon, Netanyahu, Waknin and the journalists go down to the large shelter, which is filled with dozens of kids, crayons, papers, two snakes, a goat, and guides in green t-shirts which announce to the visitors that they have actually arrived at a 'zoo'. "We arrived here after visiting the zoo of Kiryat Motzkin, and we intend to visit five more shelters today", says one of the guides, who traveled all the way from far-away Haifa (like the other guides) in order to entertain the children. Waknin continues with the review and points out that 50 Grad missiles have already hit Ashkelon. The media buzz catches the children's attention. A three-year-old girl asks Netanyahu how much longer are there going to be missiles, another boy explains to him what exactly he should do in case a siren is heard, and a group of children is asked by Netanyahu: "Do you want to return to school?". "No", "Yes", "I want them to stop throwing missiles at us", the children answer.Under the threat of the missiles, the children of Ashkelon gratefully accepted the encouragement and support of volunteers from the north, who came under difficult circumstances and proved that nothing can defeat the spirit of a nation that is united. Our fate is in our own hands.