Israel to escalate Gaza response

Israel’s security cabinet decided to step up military action against senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials to counter the barrage of rocket attacks into southern Israel.Targeted killings of senior Hamas operatives and pinpointed action against crews firing Kassam rockets into Sderot and the western Negev will be increased, but the cabinet on Sunday rejected a full-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip. It also rejected a proposal by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to allow in foreign peacekeepers to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza from neighboring Egypt.Israeli Prime Minister Olmert praised the Israeli armed forces’ recent campaign of air strikes, which has destroyed several Hamas compounds and killed at least 15 of the dominant Palestinian faction’s gunmen and rocketeers.”Hamas’s people are paying a very heavy personal price for these attacks on the residents of Sderot and outlying communities,” Olmert said.