Former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calling on him to carpet bomb sites from which Kassam rockets are launched at Israeli towns. The areas should be bombed regardless of civilian casualties among the local Arab population, Rabbi Eliyahu said, explaining that Israel should do “whatever it takes to make them stop.”

Rabbi Eliyahu quoted biblical sources to show that the civilian population of Gaza is responsible for stopping the launch of Kassam rockets from their territory. As they do nothing to stop the rockets, he said, there is no moral prohibition against attacks that endanger their lives. According to Rabbi Eliyahu, the government has a moral obligation not to endanger the lives of IDF soldiers or Jewish residents of the western Negev in an attempt to avoid Arab casualties in Gaza.