MID: Israel bombing tunnels on Gaza-Egypt border: witnesses
04 Feb 2009 3:17 AM
GAZA CITY, Feb 3 AFP - Israeli warplanes on Tuesday bombed smuggling tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt after the Jewish state warned of the "severest riposte" to rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave, witnesses said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Speaking at a security conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said: "I suggest Hamas doesn't fool around with us."
"The air force is operating in Gaza as we speak. We promised calm in the south and we will keep our promise."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened "the severest riposte" on Tuesday after a military-quality Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants thudded into a southern town.
The warning overshadowed Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at consolidating the unilateral ceasefires declared by Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement that controls Gaza on January 18.
"Any provocation, even the slightest, will trigger the severest riposte until this fire comes to a complete end," Olmert told reporters.
Barak warned: "Let nobody be mistaken, there will be a response to these firings.
"We delivered a harsh blow to Hamas... and if it emerges that we need to strike it harder, the appropriate moment will come," the defence minister said.
Tuesday's rocket struck the Israeli port city of Ashkelon causing damage but no casualties, medics said.
The strike on the city, 13km from the Gaza border, was the deepest that a rocket has penetrated into Israel since the end of Israel's deadly three-week offensive on the territory.
It prompted Olmert to convene an urgent meeting with Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
"We have to react hard to this fire," Livni told army radio.
"Otherwise the dissuasion balance created by our operation in Gaza will be affected," she said.
Barak also convened an emergency meeting of military and intelligence chiefs, the radio said.
Right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, whom opinion polls suggest is the front-runner to lead a new government after parliamentary elections next Tuesday, called for military action to overthrow Hamas in Gaza.
"We must smash the Hamas power in Gaza," the hawkish former premier said as he visited the scene of the latest rocket attack.
