PM: We absolutely won't fortify every building in Gaza area

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday during the weekly cabinet meeting that Israel would not undertake a fortification project to protect all Gaza-area homes from Qassam rocket attacks.

Olmert stressed that Israel had "absolutely no intention of fortifying every building in the Gaza-area or in Sderot."

Later in the meeting, the cabinet approved a previously proposed plan to build a 'safe room' measuring 9 square meters in each residential building within 4.5 kilometers from the Gaza border. The plan had already been approved by a special ministerial committee last week.

The Cabinet allotted a NIS 327 million budget to the fortification project.

The prime minister added that by the year 2010 Israel will be in possession of a multi-layer anti-missile defense system.

Olmert said the protection of Gaza-area communities will include a combination of solutions such as the Iron Dome defense system, an early-warning system, new school buildings in addition to the partial fortification of homes.

Hundreds of projectiles have been launched this year at Israeli towns and villages adjacent to the Strip. Residents of the southern city of Sderot, which lies about two kilometers east of Gaza and has borne the brunt of the rocket attacks, have demonstrated in Jerusalem, and set up a protest tent in a central Tel Aviv square, to draw attention to their plight.

	Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during Sunday's cabinet meeting. (Daniel Bar-On / Jini)