Israeli Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday accused the government of not doing enough to protect residents of Sderot and the western Negev from the Qassam rocket attacks from Israel. Calling for power and water cutoff in Gaza, Netanyahu said | "The government can do a lot of things to protect its citizens. It can impose a closure on the Gaza Strip, stop providing certain services to the Palestinian Authority such as electricity and water, and temporarily enter Gaza." |
He even called for military operations into the Palestinian territories to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) should launch a limited ground excursion into the Qassam firing area, around four km deep into the Palestinian border, Netanyahu was quoted by local daily Ha'aretz as saying.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said in reference to the IDF activity in Gaza that "we cannot ignore the Qassam launching" and that "the response should be military as well as political." "Launching the Qassams into Israel is aimed at drawing the Palestinian attention away from the clashes between the factions in Gaza," she added.