Rockets landed in and north of Ashdod on Thursday afternoon and sirens were heard in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gedera and Gan Yavne. Another rocket landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, the eight rocket attack since Thursday morning.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that Israel will not tolerate firing against its citizens. Speaking at a joint press conference with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Tel Aviv, Barak said that the IDF knows what it needs to do and will work to make sure that there is not an escalation.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said on Channel 2:"Hamas is the only one that is responsible for these attacks."
Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said on Thursday that Israel "will not tolerate any escalation.""We must break the equilibrium under which Hamas fires and we retaliate. We can not accept a situation in which citizens become hostages....I do not want to specify what the military options are but we must stop the war of attrition."
"We must realize that this can end in tragedy. What if, god forbid, recent attacks had ended in dozens of casualties, We would have been forced to take much more severe or comprehensive action".
"Israel will not tolerate terrorist attacks or shooting rockets at our citizens."
"The war against terror requires a long battle, but it will not stop us from taking care of whomever shoots at Israel as they have in the last few days or [of whomever] sends terrorists to the center of cities."
"Whoever does this will not be immune to a decisive attack,Hamas is responsible for everything that is shot out of Gaza and if it does not take responsibility, it will pay the price."