Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that Egypt had to take care of the crisis on the Rafiah border. Barak, who is in France, said: "I think that the Egyptians understand what their duty is, and we expect them to act to fix what happened today. To the best of our knowledge there is no hunger in Gaza and there was no objective need to darken Gaza yesterday.
Before he entered a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Barak said: "If things have to be very bad in Gaza so that there will be quiet in Sderot, then things will be very bad there."
Barak added that he is telling the Europeans he is speaking with that "Israel left Gaza, down to its last soldier. We expected quiet in Gaza, but they keep on firing Kassams on Israel, and it is the government's duty to protect its citizens."