In first response to the Rocket attacks on Israel,Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip included two main principles: "Kill or be killed" and "Hurt us – on your own head be it".
Netanyahu stressed that while Israel does not seek to deteriorate the security situation, "we will defend ourselves according to these principles."
"Anyone who prepares to fire at Israel and we have information about it, we will target him in order to foil the shooting. It is a standard directive that is used whenever there is information."
"The IAF strike was a precision operation that only targeted Islamic Jihad operatives. In return, the group began randomly shooting at population centers in Israel."
"Hamas controls Gaza. It is responsible for preventing rocket fire from Gaza and for maintaining order in Gaza, even if the perpetrators were Jihad members. I recommend to all factions not to test our resolve to implement the two principles I mentioned earlier."
President Shimon Peres, who also attended the ceremony in Safed, blamed Hamas for the rocket fire from Gaza and said that the group "bears full responsibility for everything happening in the south."
According to Peres, the firing of rockets from Gaza was a "declaration of war."