PM: Israel will take ‘stronger action’ to stop rockets

Netanyahu says at cabinet meeting that policy is to "use force in order to restore security and quiet to the residents of the South.”

By HERB KEINON
IDF soldiers near Ashkelon search for rockets_370 (photo credit: Amir Cohen/Reuters)
IDF soldiers near Ashkelon search for rockets_370
(photo credit: Amir Cohen/Reuters)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that the IDF would take stronger action if need be to stop the current round of rocket and missile fire on the South.
Netanyahu, speaking only briefly about the rocket fire at the start of the cabinet meeting, said, “The IDF is taking strong action against those who are attacking us, and it will take even stronger action if need be.”
The prime minister, who has been very cautious in his public comments since the dramatic uptick of rocket fire last week, said “our policy is to use force in order to restore security and quiet to the residents of the South.”
Netanyahu then moved to discuss the issue of the African migrants, saying that another plane will leave for South Sudan on Monday carrying deported migrants.
The first plane left last week amid great media fanfare.
Two additional planes are scheduled to carry South Sudanese migrants back to their homeland next week.
Netanyahu said that the deportations, fines levied against those employing the migrants, the rapid construction of the security fence and a new policy that any infiltrator will be taken to detention rather than to Tel Aviv has begun to “reverse the trend.”
Nevertheless, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said last Monday after the first plane left carrying some 120 South Sudanese that since the beginning of the campaign to deport the South Sudanese on June 10, 120 migrants have been deported, while another 504 have entered the country, including 70 migrants on the day that the first plane for South Sudan took off.