Obama said his country “supports Israel’s right to defend itself”

Bangkok, 18 November 2012

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U.S. President Barack Obama said today from Bangkok that his country fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself in relation to the offense that the Hebrew nation performed on the Gaza Strip since Wednesday and already killed 50 people.

”There is no country on earth that tolerates a hail of missiles falling on its citizens from outside its borders,” the president said during a joint press conference with the Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

However, Obama said it is “preferable” to end the crisis without an increase in military activity in Gaza land, according to the news agency EFE.

In the last hours the Palestinian militias intensified their launches against Israeli targets, after a night in which the Israeli Air Force band harshly punished over 70 bombings.

Obama also explained that regular contact with Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to try to ensure their support to end the rocket attacks and said, “Let’s see what kind of progress can do in the next 24, 36 or 48 hours.”