Aaronovitch, a member of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, termed the single rocket strike a “steady shower of missiles” and insisted that the government could no longer tolerate a Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israel’s military has launched a number of air strikes against Gaza already since the rocket fire.
Israel last invaded the Gaza Strip in late 2008, a multi-week operation that killed 1,417 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians. The overwhelming popularity of the conflict within Israel swept Yisrael Beiteinu, once a tiny party, into a major coalition partner role, claiming the Foreign Ministry position.