By John Sexton

Israel's ambassador in Beijing, Amos Nadai, told China.org.cn today that the military operation against Gaza would continue until it had achieved its goal of eliminating Hamas capability to shell Israeli civilian targets.

The Palestinian death toll rose to more than 360 killed and over 1,600 wounded as Israel continued airstrikes on December 30.[Xinhua]

Asked to comment on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call on Monday for an immediate ceasefire and the Secretary General's condemnation of Israeli use of "excessive force," Ambassador Nadai said "We have deep and great respect for the Secretary General …so we take whatever he says very seriously. However the goals of this operation have been set and I don't think it is going to end before those goals are achieved."

"We went [into Gaza] to eliminate Hamas' capability to continue shelling population and infrastructure targets in Israel. The goals are to eliminate those capabilities and the operation will end when those goals are achieved".

Ambassador Nadai acknowledged that that the number of civilian casualties in Gaza was "relatively high" but insisted that the responsibility lay with Hamas who, he claimed, were using civilians as human shields by launching rockets from residential areas.

He said that from the outset Israel had set out to minimize casualties but admitted that there were "terrible sights coming out from Gaza," and that Israel was likely to suffer in terms of public opinion.

"I understand [people's] reaction, but they deserve to be told the whole picture. I am not sure they will change their minds, because seeing a bloody child or a child with blood-covered wounds is a terrible sight."

Mr Nadai placed the blame for the violence squarely on Hamas for ending a ceasefire agreed in June 2008. "The operation started after the failure, or unwillingness of Hamas to continue an arrangement that had held for six months."

He said it was not a fair question to compare the numbers of casualties on the Israeli and Palestinian side. "We attach great importance to each and every human life lost be it Palestinian or be it Israeli. Israel is not targeting civilians. Palestinians are trying to target civilians. The number of civilians that were killed in Sderot is not the whole picture."

The ambassador dismissed as "nonsense" media reports that the timing of the operation was connected to either the upcoming general election in Israel, or the transition to the Obama presidency in the USA. He said some of the politicians with supposedly the most to gain from the operation had worked the hardest to maintain the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

"We were sincerely trying to extend the arrangement that was brokered through Egypt. And if they [Hamas] would have accepted the extension for three months or six months this operation would not have been launched. We were there to extend it. It's Hamas that didn't accept any kind of extension. I believe the Egyptians were disappointed."

The Palestinian death toll rose to more than 360 killed and over 1,600 wounded as Israel continued airstrikes on December 30.[Xinhua]

Ambassador Nadai said that Israel had, especially after the 2006 war in Lebanon, been extremely reluctant to get involved in another conflict and had shown enormous restraint. "What you have to really appreciate is the mounting pressure from the population of Israel. What other country would have suffered seven years of cities being terrorized?"

Ambassador Nadai also claimed that humanitarian assistance was continuing to arrive in Gaza, with 60 trucks entering the territory since Saturday.