Councils: Gaza threat growing

"We're being shelled from Gaza on a daily basis," statement says; gov't following mortar attack; Ashkenazi warns border is "very fragile."

Regional councils situated near the border with Gaza released a joint statement on Wednesday following yet more mortar and rocket attacks on the area from Gaza.

“Escalation is only a matter of time,” the statement said. “The threat in the area is constant and growing. We hope that the government will know how to relate to this reality before formulating policy for the southern line of conflict for 2011. The government must realize that this will be an active line of conflict for the foreseeable future.”

The statement came after a home in a kibbutz located in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council was damaged by a Palestinian mortar shell fired from Gaza on Wednesday.

“This is only the latest in a series of security incidents,” the Sha’ar Hanegev council said. “In recent weeks, these incidents have risen greatly, and we are now being shelled on a near-daily basis.”

Overnight Tuesday, the IAF struck a weapons warehouse and a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. The IDF said the air strike was a response to three rockets launched into the western Negev over the past two days.

Last week, two Palestinian terrorists were killed on the Gaza border when IDF troops fired on a number of suspects on the northern end of the Strip. The terrorists were apparently trying to infiltrate a kibbutz on the Gaza border.

IAF planes and IDF troops on the ground opened fire and confirmed hits. No soldiers were hurt in the incident, the army said in a statement.

The statement asserted that terrorist organizations were making ongoing attempts to harm soldiers and Israeli citizens.

“The IDF sees the Hamas terror group as responsible for breaking the peace,” the army said.