RAMALLAH – Israel is “prepared to escalate” its response to Palestinian rocket fire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday, after one of the worst flare-ups along its border with Gaza in recent years. “The army is acting and will act forcefully against the terror organisations in the Gaza Strip. They are receiving strong blows from the army,” Netanyahu told ministers at the beginning of his cabinet meeting. “The world must realize that Israel won't sit by idly in the face of attempts to attack us. We are prepared to escalate our actions,” he said. Israel Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said that Israel must resume the policy of targeted killing against Hamas leaders. Katz, of ruling Likud party, said during the weekly cabinet meeting that “Israel must act according to a very clear policy in Gaza. To cut off the head of the snake…We must take out the leadership of Hamas in Gaza.” The Israeli minister called to “disengage from Gaza in a civilian sense, including all factors: electricity, water, food and fuel… move to a policy of deterrence like in southern Lebanon.” The flare-up began Saturday evening when Gaza fighters fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli jeep along the Gaza border, injuring four soldiers, one of them severely. Three remained in hospital Sunday. Israel retaliated with airstrikes, shelling and artillery fire that left six Palestinians dead and 32 injured by Sunday morning, and Palestinian fighters fired at least 57 rockets into southern Israel. The latest barrage of rockets, Sunday morning, hit the Israeli border town of Sderot, injuring four civilians, Israeli police said. The outbreak of violence was one of the most serious since Israel's devastating 22-day operation in the Gaza Strip over New Year 2009, and raised the specter of a broad Israeli operation against the Palestinian territory. The flare-up comes ahead of Israeli elections in January, but ministers said the build-up to the vote would not prevent an operation if it was necessary. On Sunday morning, Palestinian medics said the death toll stood at six, after a Palestinian was killed and two other people wounded in an Israeli air strike near the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya overnight. The dead man was named as Mohammed Shwikani, a 20-year-old activist with the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the group said. Early on Sunday, medics reported finding the body of another Islamic Jihad fighter, 20-year-old Mohammed Abed, who was killed in another air strike east of Jabaliya. Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, said 32 people had been injured, 10 of them requiring amputations. Medics said 10 people were in “serious to critical condition.” – With agencies
