Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
said Monday morning at the Knesset's Foreign Affairs Committee that "we must operate and we will operate against Hamas centers in Gaza.
"We will expand the operation, but we will not stay there for long and permanently. Simultaneously, we have to prevent a humanitarian disaster there."
Israel has recently exerted efforts in uncovering tunnels for smuggling weapons in the Philadelphi route. According to different reports, it considers bombing such tunnels from the air.
According to estimations of Israel Defense Forces officials, terror organizations are intensively using tunnels in order to smuggle weapons, thus strengthening and arming themselves with improved and sophisticated weapons, such as antitank missiles
like the ones Hizbullah
possesses.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz referred Sunday
to the IDF's operation in the Khan Younis area.
"We will make sure to use our judgment regarding wide-scale offensive moves in the Gaza Strip, although we will operate wherever it is needed," he said.
Peretz
recently said that the IDF does not plan to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, but will wotk to neutralize the threat of tunnels.
"If these days terror elements have managed to infiltrate dozens of antitank missiles, we have no plan to wait until hundreds and thousands are transferred. If the excavations continue, we will not turn a blind eye till the smuggling routes in the tunnels turn into freeways," he added.
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