Rockets fired from Gaza continued to fall on southern Israel throughout Saturday night and Sunday morning. The IDF has held back from retaliating but IDF Radio (Galei Zahal) reports that senior military figures do expect the army to respond.
IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai told IDF Radio, "Close to 100 missiles have been fired into Israeli territory. The IDF is acting in a resolute manner."
Following the terrorist attack over the Sinai border near Eilat on Friday in which eight Israelis were killed, the situation in the south has escalated. IDF aircraft bombed Gaza killing senior Hamas activists, while the Palestinians retaliated with a barrage of rockets on Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva and Ofakim. One Israeli was killed in Beersheva last night, three people were seriously wounded in Ashdod yesterday morning and four children were lightly wounded in Ofakim - all from Grad rockets.
There were reports that the Iron Dome missile defense system had intercepted missiles fired at Ashkelon.
Mordechai added, "We are not talking about a local incident. We are in the midst of an escalation and those firing the rockets will be called to account."
Regarding the terror attack from Sinai on Friday Mordechai said, "We will examine all the details but the weapons are still hot and it is too early to draw conclusions. We will only complete the border fence along the Egyptian border in 2012."
During the terror attack on Friday, the IDF killed several Egyptian policemen. Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has apologized to the Egyptians over the matter but feelings run high in Cairo over the incident.
Mordechai said, "There is an ongoing and good dialogue with the Egyptians and it is important that it carries on that way."
He added that despite the escalation, it was too early to talk about calling up reserves.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 21, 2011
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