The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement Wednesday saying Israel would not carry out a large-scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

However, the statement said, the Israel Defense Forces are authorized to carry out limited operations in Gaza in order to foil kidnapping attempts and terror attacks in the future.

The statement included a threat that "Israel will not hesitate to take harsh measures against those who try to harm its sovereignty by firing rockets into our territory, attempting attacks on soldiers, and (by) other means."

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The decision was made at an emergency meeting that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held with senior security officials following a new round of rocket fire out of Gaza by Hamas militants. The violence has threatened to unravel a 5-month cease-fire.

Two meeting participants said Olmert agreed to allow the army to carry out pinpoint operations to halt the rocket fire, but decided against a widespread offensive, essentially continuing current Israeli policy in Gaza. There have been growing calls in military circles for tougher action in Gaza.

At the meeting Wednesday, the prime minister was presented with a proposal to resume targeted assassinations of Palestinian militants and hits on infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, but the official statement did not refer to this proposal.

Hamas said the recent Qassam rocket and mortar shell attacks were an act of revenge for an IDF operation in the territories over the weekend, in which nine Palestinians were killed.

Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said prior to the meeting that Israel was not seeking to raise the level of conflict between the two sides and security officials said a full-scale ground offensive into Gaza was not a preferred option.

"We have no interest in escalation," Sneh told Israel Radio. "We do have an interest in doing what is necessary to reduce as much as possible the level of terrorism."

Likud MKs, however, called for more stringent measures. Party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel should place Gaza under closure "until Hamas is toppled," Israel Radio reported.

MK Yuval Steinitz, a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called Wednesday for the IDF to launch an operation similar to that of Defensive Shield in 2002, which followed a wave of deadly suicide bombings inside Israel.

Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, criticized the rocket firing during a Security Council hearing Wednesday and said that Israel cannot sit idly by. "When our response comes, it will be hard and painful, " Gillerman said.

But government and army sources predicted that Israel's response would be localized and not involve a major ground operation in Gaza because no one was hurt and due to pleas for calm by members of the Palestinian government.

The sources said Hamas' claim of responsibility - the first since it formed a unity government with Fatah - should make it clear to all that this is a terrorist government.

The head of an Egyptian security delegation in Gaza, Maj. General Burhan Hamad, called a meeting of all Palestinian factions for Wednesday morning, urging them to maintain the calm to avert any possible IDF invasion of Gaza. He condemned the rocket barrages and the IDF raids.

Senior IDF officers also say the Israel Defense Forces foiled a Hamas attempt to kidnap a soldier on the Gaza border Tuesday. Apparently as part of this attempt, the dozens of rockets and shells were fired at southern Israel. There were no casualties.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that Hamas' violation of the five-month-old Gaza Strip cease-fire was an exception and would not be repeated, calling on Israel to show restraint in order to avoid a security deterioration.

"The violation of the truce is an exceptional event that will not last," said Abbas at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome.

"I take this opportunity to appeal to Israel to show the necessary self-control so that this will not happen again."

Hamas began launching rockets and mortars along the Gaza-Israel border at about 8:00 A.M. The organization said it fired 28 rockets and 61 mortars, but the IDF believes the number was lower because it identified only about 10 landing sites. The launches damaged some agricultural buildings.

Israel was to submit a protest to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday.

Hamas had recently resumed attacks from Gaza, though not on this scale. However, its claim of responsibility was unusual: After it agreed to a cease-fire in Gaza last November, it stopped announcing responsibility for rocket launches, even though it was involved in some.

Palestinian security sources affiliated with the rival Fatah party said the attack was meant to score points with the Palestinian public, but they do not believe Hamas plans a large-scale military confrontation with Israel at this stage.

The IDF's official statement Tuesday said only that the army foiled a Hamas attempt "to carry out a large-scale, complex terror attack." But senior army officers said the attack was an attempted kidnapping, apparently via a tunnel into Israel, for which the rocket and mortar fire was meant to provide cover.

Israel had advance intelligence about the attack, supported by Hamas officials' public declarations that the organization was planning additional kidnappings. This helped the army to foil it.

Government and army sources both rejected Palestinian calls to expand the cease-fire to the West Bank, saying Olmert is willing to discuss this only once the cease-fire in Gaza is truly being honored.

Troops hurt in West Bank

Also Wednesday, two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in an explosion near their vehicle during a patrol in the West Bank city of Nablus, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.

The two were taken to hospital for medical treatment, the radio said.

In Hebron, security forces arrested a wanted militant who was taken for questioning.