Mayor of rocket-battered Netivot calls for talks with Hamas

One of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu's most important supporters in the Negev, longtime Netivot Mayor Yehiel Zohar, is calling on Israel to negotiate with Hamas.

"The fact that we have so far not held talks with Hamas is a mistake," Zohar told Knesset members and cabinet ministers who visited Netivot on Monday, two days after city resident Bebert Vaknin was killed in a rocket attack there, the day the Israel Defense Forces assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip began.

"In order to achieve the calm we are hoping for, we will have to speak to Hamas this time around, too," said Zohar, a Likud Central Committee member. "It's too bad they didn't aspire enough to an agreement, because ultimately we'll be talking only with Hamas."

Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the purpose of the IDF operation was to remove Hamas from power. "There is a goal and the goal is to remove this Iranian-sponsored Hamas terrorist base, which is right now hitting the suburbs of Tel Aviv," he told Reuters in an interview. "Ultimately we have no other choice."

Zohar, meanwhile, said he was not interested in expensive defenses to protect his city's residents from rocket or mortar fire, calling most Qassam casualties people "who don't follow instructions."

"The defense expenses are excessive," he said. Referring to the Iron Dome rocket-protection system, which is in development, he added: "We're not looking to defend ourselves with Iron Domes or futuristic technologies. We don't want to invest a fortune in excessive defense. Most of the Qassams hit curious people who wander around outside and don't follow instructions.