Ramon: Halt rockets, or we will hit Gaza harder
By Haaretz Service 16 June 2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/727844.html

Israel will ratchet up its military reaction to Palestinian rocket fire from
the Gaza Strip unless the Palestinians work to halt the attacks, Justice
Minister Haim Ramon said Friday.

"If the residents of the Gaza Strip don't act and don't understand that the
biggest threat to their security is the Qassam fire, then we will have to
intensify our response and take steps that we have not yet taken," he told
Israel Radio. He did not specify which steps were being considered.

MK Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party,
called on the Israel Defense Forces on Friday to announce that it will
target Hamas leaders' homes in response to Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza
Strip, Israel Radio reported.

Israel has already warned Hamas that it would attack the group's leaders
unless the rocket fire was halted, and Palestinian sources told Haaretz that
as a result, Hamas instructed its operatives Monday night to stop firing
Qassams at Israel. However, Hamas later denied the Haaretz report.

Lieberman held a faction meeting Friday in the Negev town of Sderot, which
has been a frequent target of rocket fire. He said the next Knesset plenum
session should also be held in Sderot.

A Qassam rocket hit a moshav in the western Negev on Friday, causing some
damage, Israel Radio reported. Palestinians fired six other Qassams at
Israel on Thursday night and Friday. There were no injuries.

Sderot residents, meanwhile, are holding a hunger strike in the town, near
Defense Minister Amir Peretz's home.

Protesters said the IDF needs to do more to prevent the Palestinians from
firing rockets at Israel.

But Ramon said the IDF was already attacking Qassam-launching cells in the
Gaza Strip.

"Everyone who fires Qassams today knows that he is betting his life and that
at the end of the day he will pay the full price," he said.