(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Sunday, 21 December 2014), said:

"In this struggle that we are in, Israel is being attacked on two fronts simultaneously. It is being attacked by the terrorism of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations. It is also under a diplomatic attack led by the Palestinian Authority and which is designed to deny us our very right to defend ourselves and seeks to deny us the legitimacy of our very existence.

We are rebuffing both of these attacks. Over the weekend we sent a clear message to Hamas - we are not prepared to countenance the firing of even one rocket and we are responding accordingly and in strength.

We also have a clear message to those who are leading the diplomatic assault against us. It could be that the Palestinians will, in the very near future, submit to the UN Security Council their proposal to unilaterally force on Israel the establishment of a Palestinian state as well as other conditions that are unacceptable to us. We expect the responsible elements in the international community to reject this proposal; in any case, we will vigorously oppose it and will, of course, not act in accordance with any diktat."