Israel is considering cutting off electricity to parts of Gaza if rocket attacks by Palestinian militants into southern Israel continue, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Wednesday. "The recommendation is to begin gradually cutting the electricity supply without harming humanitarian sources like hospitals," he told Israel Army Radio. Any such move would have to be approved by Israeli Defense Minster Ehud Barak.
This recommendation is part of a plan put together by security officials in response to the ongoing rocket attacks into southern Israel and comes only a few weeks after the Israeli cabinet declared Gaza a "hostile territory."
On Tuesday, eight Qassam rockets launched from Gaza landed in southern Israel, hitting a house, but inflicting no casualties, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said. Also on Tuesday, a Palestinian militant died in an Israeli airstrike on his vehicle in central Gaza.
An Israeli army spokesman said the target of the attack had been Mubarak Hassanat, a senior member of the Popular Resistance Committees -- an umbrella group for Palestinian militant groups. One bystander was injured in the attack, the spokesman said.
According to Israel, a total of 15 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza on Monday and Tuesday. |