Israel PM threatens to teach Hamas lesson 'very soon'

JERUSALEM - Agence France-Presse

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah' s warning was issued shortly after Hamas said it had deployed forces in Gaza to "preserve the truce" following an uptick of rocket fire on Israel. AFP Photo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to teach Gaza's ruling Hamas movement a lesson "very soon" following a surge in militant rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
 
"We foil terrorist attacks when we identify that they are in the making and we respond against those who attack us," Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem at a joint press conference with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper. "If Hamas and the other terror organisations forgot this lesson, they will learn it again the hard way and very soon," he said. His warning was issued shortly after Hamas said it had deployed forces in Gaza to "preserve the truce" following an uptick of rocket fire on Israel.
 
Over the past month, tensions have risen in and around Gaza after more than a year of relative calm following a major Israeli confrontation with Hamas in November 2012.
 
Since December 20, four Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed in violence in and around Gaza, with militant rocket fire sparking retaliatory air strikes by Israel. Army figures show eight rockets have struck Israeli territory since January 1, and another five were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, sparking fears that a new confrontation with Gaza militants is looming. Netanyahu has warned that Israel would not allow the intermittent rocket fire to turn into a deluge. "Security requires constant maintenance which means we don't accept what I call the 'drip irrigation' of rockets without a response - that is not the policy of this government," he told foreign reporters in an address on January 16. "My government's policy is to respond so we don't let the drizzle of rocket accumulate into rain, which then develops into a storm. We act." Earlier, Hamas confirmed its security forces had fanned out along the frontier to put a halt to firing by various militant groups. "National security forces have been deployed in order to preserve the truce," Hamas interior ministry spokesman Islam Shawan told AFP, referring to an Egyptian-brokered deal which ended the last major confrontation with Israel in November 2012.
 
Militants fired at least one rocket at southern Israel late on Monday which caused neither casualties nor damage. Another rocket at the weekend prompted an air strike on Gaza City on Sunday which wounded two Palestinians, one critically, with the military saying it had targeted a senior Islamic Jihad militant who was behind much of the rocket fire.