Soldiers in Gaza
Soldiers in GazaIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The exposure of a terrorist tunnel leading from Gaza to an Israeli town “is a reminder that terrorism exists, and can strike at any time,” MK Omer Bar-Lev (Labor) said Sunday.

The attack could just as easily have been aimed at any of the other many Israeli communities located in the “Gaza belt” region, he said.

The Gaza belt is the several kilometers of Israeli land next to the Hamas-dominated Gaza region; communities in the area have been targeted for terrorist infiltration in the past, and receive little to no warning prior to rocket or mortar shell attacks.

Bar-Lev warned against ending IDF security patrols in Israeli towns in the region, as was previously planned. “I ask, again, that the Defense Minister and the IDF cancel that decision in order to give residents of communities near the [Gaza security] fence the maximum protection, and no less important, to increase the sense of security felt by those residents who are on the front lines and who have shown determination in the face of daily threats,” he said.

Heads of communities in the Gaza belt region had the same request. They issued a call Sunday morning to keep IDF security operational in Israeli towns in the region.

The decision to withdraw military protection from the communities is “a bizarre decision” and “disconnected from reality,” they charged.