Security Cabinet to Meet Over Situation in South

YERUSHALAYIM
Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 5, 2016. Israeli forces struck four new Hamas positions in the southern Gaza Strip, following continued mortar shells fired by Hamas into Southern Israel, as a flare-up continued to threaten a 2014 ceasefire agreement. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** òæä øöåòú òæä øôéç òùï àù ôéöåõ éøé éùøàì ãøåí âáåì ôöîØøéí îðäøåú èøåø
Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Rafiach, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Hamas continued firing mortar shells at IDF soldiers Friday, as soldiers continued to map out the location of terror tunnels running under the Gaza border. The security cabinet is set to meet Friday to discuss the situation in the south.

Israel Air Force planes hit several targets in Gaza Friday morning in response to the latest shelling.

The shelling followed Thursday’s announcement by the IDF that it had uncovered another Hamas terror tunnel, the second in less than a month. Hamas said Friday that the tunnel was an old one, and that it had been used during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge – and in fact was the first tunnel used to send terrorists into Israel during that war.

Speaking Thursday night, an angry Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon sharply warned Hamas against further aggravating the security situation. “We will not allow the continued violation of our sovereignty. We will not stop until we have found and destroyed the last of the tunnels. We will continue to respond to Hamas in a manner that will ensure that we respond to all of Hamas’s provocations, not to exacerbate tensions but to ensure that Hamas stops its attacks.”

Former IDF Southern Command head Zvika Fogel told Army Radio on Friday morning that matters were coming to a head in Gaza. “We need to bring this ongoing situation to an end, and if that means retaking Gaza, then so be it. I am not worried about doing that. If I were running things then tomorrow morning would the last one that top Hamas terrorists like Mohammed Deff and Ismail Haniyeh would be waking up.”

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