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Israel prepares for military operation in Gaza - minister

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The Israeli armed forces has been ordered to prepare a large-scale military operation on Gaza in an effort to stop militant rocket launches on Israeli towns, the defense minister said on Monday.
TEL AVIV, February 11 (RIA Novosti) - The Israeli armed forces has been ordered to prepare a large-scale military operation on Gaza in an effort to stop militant rocket launches on Israeli towns, the defense minister said on Monday.

Last week Palestinian militants fired more than 30 rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot and other communities bordering Hamas-controlled Gaza.

"The Israeli Army is preparing for a large-scale [military] operation on Gaza, its possible alternatives and consequences," Ehud Barak said. "We are not ruling out any methods, which may be required to restore peace in Sderot and other residential areas on the Gaza border."

Israel virtually cut off all deliveries of fuel and other essential items to Gaza a month ago, following a surge in rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert subsequently warned that life would not be "pleasant or comfortable" for people in the enclave if the attacks continued.

More than 230,000 Israelis live within range of Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and since the hard line Islamic Hamas seized power of the enclave in June last year, more than 4,200 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at Israel's southern cities and towns.

Barak said that over the past four months Israeli forces had killed nearly 200 Palestinian militants, including 16 in the last few days.

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