Israel PM Says Gaza Ceasefire 'Not on Agenda' as Putin Urges Ending Violence
A ceasefire with Hamas militants in Gaza is "not even on the agenda," Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee Thursday, an Israeli newspaper reported.
"I am not talking to anybody about a ceasefire right now," the website of Haaretz newspaper quoted Netanyahu as telling the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee.
"It's not even on the agenda."
Israel has been pounding targets in the Gaza Strip for three days, since beginning an offensive named Operation Protective Edge in response to Hamas rocket fire.
Since the beginning of the flare-up, at least 80 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of rockets have been fired into Israel.
No Israelis have been killed.
Netanyahu said he would not heed calls from hardline right-wing members of his government to cut electricity to Gaza, which Israel supplies.
"We can't do what the Russians did to the Chechens," Haaretz quoted him as saying.
The meeting was held at the defense ministry in Tel Aviv, rather than its usual location in the parliament building in Jerusalem.
Rockets fired from Gaza since the flare-up began Tuesday have reached major cities including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an end to spiraling violence in Gaza during telephone talks with Netanyahu.
"The Russian side stressed the necessity to as soon as possible stop armed confrontation, which leads to multiple victims among civilians," the Kremlin said after the call between the two leaders.
Putin and Netanyahu also discussed bilateral ties and "some other issues that are of mutual interest," the Kremlin said, without elaborating. The call took place at the initiative of the Israeli side, Putin's office added.
Source: Agence France Presse
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