'IDF will have to carry out large-scale Gaza operation'

Sa'ar says rockets will force Israel into campaign bigger than Operation Cast Lead; Mofaz warns diplomatic stalemate endangering lives.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Published: MARCH 25, 2011 09:14
IDF soldiers on tank near Gaza border 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
IDF soldiers on tank near Gaza border 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) on Friday said that he estimates that the IDF will eventually have to carry out a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, bigger than Operation Cast Lead. Sa'ar made the comments in an interview with Israel Radio.
Sa'ar said that he understood local authorities in the South who decided to cancel school in light of increased rocket and mortar fire, but emphasized that the Home Front Command said that studies could continue as usual.
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Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) on Friday warned that the continuing stalemate in the peace process endangers lives and the government must not miss the opportunity to advance on this front. Mofaz's comments came in an interview with Israel Radio.
Mofaz said that Israel is in need of a strategy that advances the diplomatic process with the Palestinians and talks with the Syrians, while simultaneously stopping the rocket terror.
The former IDF chief of General Staff said that the Palestinians had crossed a red line recently, and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must determine how to halt continued rocket attacks on the South.
Mofaz stated that if he was prime minister he would consider renewing targeted killings of terrorists.