NAZARETH (PIC)– Israeli premier Ehud Olmert on Sunday ordered his war minister Ehud Barak to escalate attacks on the Gaza Strip in retaliation to the Palestinian resistance’s firing of a homemade missile that reached Ashkelon north of the Strip.
Olmert’s orders which precede the visit of American president George Bush to Israel and the Palestinian territories meant that political leaders in Gaza could be targeted especially those of Hamas.
The premier said that the shelling of Ashkelon is a “serious development” and an “escalation” on the part of Palestinian resistance.
Israel would continue military operations targeting those responsible for “terrorist attacks” he said adding that his government would discuss earmarking almost six million dollars to fortify buildings in settlements near to the Gaza Strip.
The IOF aggression on the Strip did not cease with the latest victim being a 17-year-old boy who was hit with IOF bullets in an incursion earlier Sunday into central Gaza.
IOF attacks on Gaza in the past month of December claimed the lives of 60 Palestinians.
