Metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel’s finance and commercial center, will be bombed by missiles n the next Gaza war, warns Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai.
"In the next conflict with Gaza, even if it at a much lower intensity than a war, missiles will fall on Gush Dan -- for all purposes, inside Tel Aviv," Vilnai said at an international defense conference in metropolitan Tel Aviv.
Intelligence officials have warned for more than two years that the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza has smuggled missiles that can reach far beyond southern Israel, which was targeted nearly three years ago, before and during the counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead campaign.
Hamas and other terrorist groups have at least 10,000 missiles and rockets, according to military intelligence estimates. Advanced weapons are smuggled, in whole or in parts for assembly, enter Gaza from Iran, often via Sudan.
Vilnai said that Israel is improving its defense capabilities against missiles, and referred to bomb shelters and missile interceptors as well as retaliatory measures.
Citing Israel’s tiny area, he said, "There is no country in the world that is threatened like the State of Israel," he said. "The only country that approximates it is South Korea."
Since the end of Operation Cast Lead, southern Israel has been attacked by nearly 300 missiles and rockets. Israel has carried out tit-for-tat retaliatory tactics, striking rocket manufacturing plants and terrorist tunnels. The Defense Ministry, headed by Ehud Barak, has not explained why orders have not been give to the IDF to conduct pre-emptive strikes before missiles cam bombard Israeli civilians.