Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Japanese Foreign Minister that the 'humanitarian problem" the international community says exists in Gaza also exists in Sderot. Olmert explained that Israel cannot sit idle while Arabs attack with Kassam rockets, one of which left a 10-year-old boy with a badly damaged arm this week. The Prime Minister, responding to Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura's concern for Gazan Arabs, said that Israel will not tolerate the continuing strikes.

Olmert repeated threats that he has made since taking office. As far back as two years ago, he told the annual Mayors Conference in Israel that Israel will fight terror forcefully and without hesitation" and that rocket launching terrorists “will not have one minute of rest."