Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the army will operate in the Gaza Strip as long as Palestinian rocket fire and "terror" attacks continue. "I said it a week ago and I'll say it again," Olmert said during the weekly cabinet meeting, according to Haaretz. "Our operations in the Gaza sector will continue as long as the Qassam fire and terror attempts continue."
Olmert did not say if Israeli military strikes in Gaza Strip would increase, a day after Islamic Jihad members drove to a border fence in a jeep, breached it and attacked an unmanned army post on the other side. Exchanges of fire with Israeli forces sent to the scene left one Palestinian dead while three others made it back inside Gaza.
On his part, Israel's Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the latest raid was aimed at capturing a soldier while Olmert called it an attempt to "further complicate the situation." "The central objective of the terrorist organizations was to hit Israel, to carry out a kidnapping and in this way to put us into difficulties," Peretz told public radio.
