Netanyahu: We will respond to Eilat rocket attacks

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says it is "unacceptable" that members of a terrorist cell left Gaza and used Sinai to attack Israel.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, TOVAH LAZAROFF
Netanyahu at cabinet meeting 370 (photo credit: Amit Shabi/Yediot Ahronot, pool)
Netanyahu at cabinet meeting 370
(photo credit: Amit Shabi/Yediot Ahronot, pool)
Terrorists behind last week’s twin rocket attacks on Eilat came from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said during a government meeting on Sunday.
The premier vowed to respond to them.
“Those responsible [for the Eilat attack] were apparently members of a terrorist cell that left Gaza and used Sinai in order to attack an Israeli city.
This is unacceptable. We will exact a price for this; this has been our consistent policy for the past four years and it will serve us here as well,” Netanyahu said.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon briefed the cabinet on the issue.
Hours before Netanyahu’s remarks, a Palestinian rocket was fired at the Eshkol Regional Council overnight on Sunday, triggering a siren. The projectile landed in an open area and did not cause injuries or damages.
The IDF combed the area for the projectile.
Two Palestinian rockets slammed into the Eshkol Regional Council on Thursday evening, without triggering an air raid siren. The rockets fell in a field, and failed to cause injuries or damages.
In Wednesday’s attack on the Red Sea city, two rockets exploded in open territory, but failed to cause injuries or damages.
One projectile fell in a building site.
Mohamed Zawahiri, the brother of al-Qaida leader Ayman Zawahiri, denied that Jihadist-Salafists fired missiles from Sinai at Eilat and blamed the Egyptian media for the rumors, according to a report on Sunday in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. In reality, he said, “A group of the mujahideen in Palestine are the ones who launched the rockets at Israel and they have the right to defend themselves at all times.”
Ariel Ben Solomon contributed to this report.