Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that he had no intention of providing maximal protection to all residents of Gaza periphery communities. "A country cannot protect itself ad infinitum, because there would be no end to it."

Olmert was addressing the Caesarea Conference.

The prime minister added that stepping up protection would be "just as [ineffective] as the demand to solve Sderot's Kassam problem by wiping Beit Hanun and other towns in Gaza off the face of the earth.

The prime minister appealed to the residents of the Gaza periphery: "In the short term we cannot supply you with all of the personal security that we would like to provide, because such protection would draw from expensive resources that are needed for other critical security needs."

Olmert also addressed the media, asking that they "not encourage, even mutely, demands of citizens that no normal government could accept." He added that "life in Israel entails a certain security risk, and anyone who chooses to live in the Jewish state is accepting this risk." And yet, "the risk in Israel is lower than the risk threatening Jews in other parts of the world."

The prime minister addressed the issue of the three soldiers still being held by Israel's enemies. "We will balance the wish to return Gilad, Udi and Eldad with the need to protect Israel's crucial interests." Regarding the recording of Gilad Schalit released by Hamas, Olmert said that "terrorism tries to subdue Israel by attacking the innocent, while taking advantage of its sensitivity to the lives of its citizens."

A group of social activists held a demonstration in front of the hotel hosting the conference. There were a number of confrontations between demonstrators and police.