Photo of Bloomberg visiting a hospital in the Israeli town of Sderot courtesy AP/Tsafrir Abayov
As Israeli forces gained control of the eastern section of northern Gaza and pushed deeper into the territory, Mayor Bloomberg visited Israel and continued to emphasize his support for the continued strikes. He told the AP, "You should rest assured, if anyone in New York was being threatened, my instruction to the NYPD would be to use all the resources at their disposal to protect civilians."
Bloomberg made the trip along with NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Queens Congressman Gary Ackerman. Ackerman, the chairman of the House subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said the onus of the civilian deaths was on Hamas for using them as human shields.
The mayor once again brought the scope of the current military conflict close to home, invoking the attacks on New York as he said, "I think as a New Yorker, we've been attacked twice by al-Qaida itself. We've seen enormous devastation and courage and after that you sort of feel you have a bond, if you will, for those who live in a dangerous world and subject to someone trying to kill them."
At one point, the mayor and his group had to be hurried into a bomb shelter when a missile warning went off. Bloomberg said, "All Hamas has to do is stop sending rockets over to kill people and agree on the accords that were negotiated earlier and come to an agreement that is verifiable, durable and effective to stop people from being killed."
Meanwhile, Hammas responded to the ground attacks by releasing an ominous statement Sunday, saying they would "fight until the last breath" and warned Israel that "Gaza will be your cemetery."
