It only is a matter of time before a Kassam rocket "hits a school or a supermarket, killing many Israelis," TIME magazine has reported. It stated that fears of American and international criticism are holding back the government from a large military counter-terrorist offensive in the Gaza area. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert favors occasional search and destroy missions that keep Hamas on the run and limit rocket attacks.
The proposal of Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu), to launch an all-out assault "might cause 'over a thousand' Palestinian casualties and the loss of 'a few hundred Israelis,'" according to military sources quoted by TIME. It also would cause the collapse of the planned American-sponsored international conference on the Middle East in November.
Limiting an incursion into northern Gaza, the source of most of the rocket fire, would displace thousands of miles and "raise an international outcry," the magazine continued. It also might cause Hamas to use longer-range and more precise rockets to hit deeper into Israel and also would force Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to walk away from negotiations with Israel.