Kadima Knesset Member Shai Hermesh has blamed Wednesday's Security Cabinet decision for the barrage of more than 30 mortar shells and 18 rockets that rained over the western Negev Thursday. At least two people were injured by flying shrapnel, and several others were treated for shock.
The government decision extended the present wait-and-see policy that bars the IDF from carrying out a large counterterrorist operation while continuing to examine the possibility of a cooling-off period of terrorist attacks and IDF retaliatory measures.
Hamas official Mushir al-Masri commented, "The Zionist enemy must not dream of winning calm when it bombs houses and brings them down on the heads of their inhabitants."