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Kerry: "Hamas Uses Civilians as Shields; We Want a Cease-Fire without any Rewards for Terrorist Behavior"
(CNN) Candy Crowley - Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday: "Israel is under siege by a terrorist organization that has seen fit to dig tunnels and come through those tunnels with handcuffs and tranquilizer drugs, prepared to try to capture Israeli citizens and take them back to hold them hostage. No country could sit by and not take steps to try to deal with people who are sending thousands of rockets your way, literally in the middle of a conversation both with the president and with me. While we were talking to the prime minister, sirens went off, the prime minister of Israel had to interrupt a conversation with the president of the United States, to go to a shelter. People can't live that way. And Hamas needs to understand. We are supporting the Egyptian initiative for a cease-fire." "No country, no human being is comfortable with children being killed, with people being killed. But we're not comfortable with Israeli soldiers being killed either, or with people being rocketed in Israel....The fact is that we've asked Israel, and Israel has said we will try to reduce whatever we can with respect to civilian involvement, and civilians have been warned to move well ahead of time. The fact is that Hamas uses civilians as shields, and they fire from a home and draw the fire into the home." "Hamas began rocketing in response to Israel's legitimate efforts to try to find people who killed and kidnapped three young Israeli boys, and people need to keep the focus on the factual trend here of what happens when and what leads to what. Yes, we want the fighting to stop, and we want to see a cease-fire, but it's got to be a cease-fire without any rewards for terrorist behavior."