Yitzhak Aharonovitch
Yitzhak AharonovitchFlash 90-

Minister of Public Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch said, Thursday, the next escalation in Israel's south would be more violent that previous exchanges.

"Hamas and other groups continue firing rockets, which demands a much more aggressive solution," Aharonovitch told Kol Yisrael radio.

He added that future exchanges will involve more rounds of combat and will be drawn out over a longer period of time.

Terror gangs in Hamas-run Gaza have continued to fire rockets at Israel's southern communities despite a theoretical ceasefire in place since 13 March.

On 9 March, Israel killed the head of the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza in an airstrike after intelligence officials concluded he was planning a major attack on Israel's south.

Over the next four days, terrorists fired 200 rockets at Israel's southern communities in what the IDF described as a “dramatic development in terms of the quantity and rate of the fire.”

Israeli airstrikes targeting terrorists firing rockets at Israel from densely populated civilian areas in Gaza killed 26 – of whom at least 21 were terrorists.

IDF officials charged that the terrorists were using civilians as "human shields."

Critics say Israel's airstrikes-for-rockets strategic posture vis-a-vis Gaza has only served to perpetuate the poor security situation its southern citizens must endure.

Aharonovitch has previously called for a major ground incursion into Gaza to uproot the terror infrastructure in the coastal enclave.

Senior military officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, have described such an operation as "increasingly inevitable."