PM: Israel reserves right to act freely in Gaza Strip

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will stress to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at their scheduled meeting in Jerusalem tomorrow evening that Israel reserves the right to act freely in the Gaza Strip against Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.

Olmert will also tell Rice that Israel is interested in continuing negotiations with moderate elements in the Palestinian Authority.

In Olmert's view, Israeli military activity in Gaza in the past few days has got the message across that Hamas needs to rethink its strategy.

"Israel will not consent to the equation that Hamas wants to dictate in the Gaza Strip through the targeting of Ashkelon. We will be the ones to create the equation, not Hamas," he said at yesterday's weekly cabinet meeting.

That was also the main message to emerge from a consultation Olmert held yesterday with the defense and foreign ministers, IDF chief of staff, and heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad intelligence agencies.

For now, Olmert has instructed the defense establishment to maintain the current level of activity, which he feels has yet to be exhausted.

IDF military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin provided a broader perspective on the situation at yesterday's cabinet meeting.

"The fact that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are not shooting now does not mean they are out of the battle," he said. "Everyone is watching to see how the conflict in Gaza will end, to decide how to act."

According to Yadlin, Hamas was pressured into deciding "that the situation is intolerable and that the siege must be broken and a different equation forged in the conflict with Israel."

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin suggested that Hamas wants calm in Gaza so that at a later stage it can take over the West Bank. Diskin added that "Hamas has a greater advantage in combat in the built-up area," which dictates the IDF's current modus operandi.

Diskin said Hamas was surprised by the intensity of Israel's response, and by the fact that even when it cut back its rocket fire, Israel continued to attack. He emphasized that Hamas can stop the rocket fire if it wants to.

"If Hamas understands that continued fire endangers its assets, it will try to arrange with the other organizations for the fire to stop," Diskin said.

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi told the cabinet that the Palestinians are using civilians in rocket operations. "In one case we saw an old Palestinian man leave Jabalya with a wagon in which a Grad missile was concealed. He stopped, as though at random, beside an orchard, to which two gunmen came, took the missile, placed it on a launcher and launched it," Ashkenazi said.

In response to criticism from abroad that Israel is using excessive force in Gaza and killing civilians, Olmert said at the meeting: "Israel is defending its residents in the South, and with all due respect, nothing will prevent it from defending them, and no one has a right to preach to us for acting in self-defense."