Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the
IDF does not pay attention to empty calls for cease fires from various
terrorist groups, in an interview on
Monday with Army Radio. If they want a cease fire, Islamic Jihad and
Hamas will need to actually stop their attacks, he explained. He added
that Israel holds Hamas accountable for all rocket fire from Gaza.
The
defense minister said the IDF is not interested in returning to Gaza.
It will, however, respond accordingly to attacks against Israel's
citizens.
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"There's no foundation for charges that we are getting drawn [into
the fighting] and not initiating. The people who call to us to attack
forcefully in the Strip will be the same people to criticize that we
will get entangled there," he said.
Addressing the Iranian nuclear program, Barak said,
"We have no reason to fear anything" as Israel is the strongest country
in the Middle East. Still, Iran is a central threat to Israel and the
international community and needs to be treated as such.
"Israel
doesn't have to allow a nuclear Iran, the world doesn't have to allow a
nuclear Iran," he insisted, saying that all all options for dealing
with the Iranian threat should be on the table.
Also on Monday, Home
Front Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i said he believes the current round
of violence with the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip is coming
to an end, in an interview with Israel Radio.
One Israeli was killed
and dozens of rockets and mortar rounds were fired into Israel in recent
days, leading to IAF strikes on the Strip targeting rocket launching
squads and terrorist targets.
Vilna'i cautioned, however, that
the situation could still deteriorate if the IDF identifies active
rocket launching squads and targets them.
The IDF said overnight Sunday that its
aircraft struck a rocket launching cell in Gaza after it fired a
projectile into Israel. Two members of the cell were reported killed.
"We identified an accurate strike," an IDF spokesman told
The Jerusalem Post.
The home front
defense minister added that Hamas has no interest in an escalation at the moment,
especially because the prisoner swap deal for Gilad Schalit is not yet
complete. Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza, has thus far not taken responsibility for the rocket attacks launched in recent days.
The
IDF action came after three Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip
into southern Israel landed in the Eshkol Regional Council area on
Sunday close to midnight.
No injuries or damage were reported in the attacks.
The IDF
approved a series of operations
aimed at widening the scope of its responses to ongoing Islamic Jihad
rocket attacks from Gaza on Sunday, as Egypt tried to mediate a second
cease-fire after the first attempt at a truce lasted only several hours.
The planning for an intensified Israeli response, which was overseen by
Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, took place in the command
and control room of the IDF’s Southern Command in Beersheba, and in Tel
Aviv.
As senior defense chiefs spent Sunday preparing for a
further escalation, they treated reports of a new cease-fire with
skepticism, after Gazans shattered a brief calm by attempting to fire a
rocket into Israel around 3 p.m.
The terrorist cell that prepared
the rocket for launch was struck successfully by an air force aircraft,
thwarting the attack. The cell reportedly belonged to the Democratic
Front for the Liberation of Palestine. One terrorist was killed and
another was seriously wounded.
Despite reports of a ceasefire,
municipal officials in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheba and Gan Yavne decided
to take no chances and canceled classes at all schools in their
districts.
With the exception of Ashkelon, Monday will be the
second day in a row in which schoolchildren in the South will remain at
home because of the security situation.
The decision was taken
against the advice of the Home Front Command, which advised southern
communities that schools could be reopened. It signaled the lack of
faith local leaders placed in claims that the situation was heading
toward calm.