Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday met with mayors from southern Israel over the spiraling violence around the Gaza Strip, and again warned that Israel could launch a military operation against Palestinian terror groups in the restive enclave before the March 2 election.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu updated the regional council heads on the latest developments related to Gaza and said we are prepared for all scenarios, including a wide-scale operation,” a statement from the premier’s office said of his meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday with the mayor of Sderot and heads of the Sdot Negev, Eshkol, Hof Ashkelon, and Sha’ar Hanegev regional councils.
The meeting came after rocket fire renewed overnight from Gaza, prompting retaliatory Israeli raids.
The mayors of the Gaza-adjacent communities demanded a “change of policy vis-a-vis terror groups in Gaza.”
“In the past two years we have been experiencing a war that we can no longer ignore,” they said in a joint statement. “In the past month alone, we have absorbed dozens of rockets and at the same time, the balloon terrorism from the Strip has grown more serious and more dangerous.”
The mayors also addressed rumors of a looming ceasefire deal between Israel and the Gaza terror groups, saying “any talk of an arrangement is entirely removed from [the reality] on the ground.”
The prime minister earlier this month cautioned that a military campaign could be launched before the election. In September, Netanyahu issued a similar warning that a war could break out before the previous national vote that month. That threat came shortly after he was pulled offstage in southern Israel during a campaign event due to rocket fire. The scene repeated itself later last year, in December, when the prime minister was similarly rushed to shelter.
Palestinian terrorists fired at least two rockets at southern Israel on Saturday night, apparently hitting open fields and causing no injuries, despite recent reports from both sides of the border of a ceasefire agreement, the military said. In response, Israeli jets carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday, targeting Hamas installations.
The rockets appeared to strike outside the community of Kibbutz Kissufim, just east of the Gaza border, in the Eshkol region. Residents of the area reported hearing the sound of an explosion.
Last week, Israeli politicians publicly threatened a harsh military response if attacks from the Gaza Strip continued.
Fears have also mounted in recent weeks of an escalation of violence in Gaza and the West Bank following the release last month of a US peace plan that is seen as heavily favoring Israel and that Palestinian leaders have rejected.
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