President Shimon Peres, met on Sunday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The leaders issued statements to the media and addressed the kidnapping of the three Israeli boys.
“Terror today is the central threat to the whole world,” Peres told reporters. “Israel suffers greatly from terror, and just yesterday evenings rockets were once again fired from the Gaza Strip at innocent Israeli civilians. I met with the families of the three kidnapped boys and they touched my heart, all of Israel is with them.”
Peres praised the United Nations as “an important organization which represents the world,” and called on the world body to act on behalf of the families of the missing boys and to call for their immediate release. “We must raise a moral cry and condemn terror on behalf of the entire world. I know how much the situation in Gaza concerns you, but we must speak honestly – the one who is responsible for that is Hamas which runs Gaza and leads to terror and poverty – we have a moral responsibility to condemn Hamas and fight against all terrorism,” Peres said.
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stressed that the United Nations unequivocally condemns the kidnappings and said “I have already issued a statement on the kidnapping of the young Israeli students, under any circumstances, for any reason, it cannot be justified. It is totally unacceptable.”