Netanyahu: Wave of terrorism disturbs 'quietest year in a decade'

Prime minister lauds IDF intelligence work, aggression against terror in exposing alleged Gaza terror tunnel.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, TOVAH LAZAROFF
Netanyahu at cabinet meeting October 13, 2013 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Netanyahu at cabinet meeting October 13, 2013 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The relative silence of the "quietest year in over a decade" has been disturbed by the increase of terrorist activities in recent weeks, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday morning, just after a Palestinian tunnel from Gaza into Israel was uncovered.
"I want to commend the IDF for exposing the terror tunnel," Netanyahu said.
"Its part of our policy, a policy of aggression against terror, with elimination, with intelligence work, with activities that we initiate and react to and of course with Operation Pillar of Defense," Netanyahu said.
Separately, security forces are investigating the murder of Col (res.) Sraya "Yaya" Ofer, Netanyahu said.
Ofer was killed early Friday morning outside his home in Brosh Habika in the Jordan Valley.
Last Saturday, a nine-year-old girl was wounded in a suspected terror attack at her home in the West Bank settlement of Psagot.
In September, two IDF soldier were killed in the West Bank. "The suffering over the loss of your son is difficult. The criminal incident proves once again that the fight against terrorism is constant," Army Radio quoted Netanyahu as saying to the family of slain IDF soldier Sgt. Tomer Hazan.
In light of the IDF's exposure of the tunnel leading from Gaza, the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories, Major-General Eitan Dangot, called for Israel to stop the transfer of construction materials to the enclave, Israel Radio reported.
Leaders from communities near the Gaza border called for the IDF to revoke a previous decision to pull soldiers out from deployments on frontline communities near the northern and southern borders.
Haim Yalin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council said the discovery of the tunnel prevented disaster, according to the radio station.
Meanwhile, MK Omer Bar-Lev (Labor) on Sunday called on the IDF to provide maximum security to residents of communities near the border with the Gaza Strip.
"This morning we received a reminder that terrorism exists and that it could erupt at any moment," Bar-Lev said in response to an announcement earlier in the day of the IDF's discovery of a Palestinian terrorist tunnel.
Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.