Dichter: Israel should turn northern Gaza launching area into "ghost town"
By Associated Press June 4, 2006
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter on Sunday called for tougher action against Palestinian rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip, saying forces should turn one of the main launching grounds into a "ghost town."
"The government has to fight the Kassam fire with determination and to act in the Gaza Strip as it acts toward Hezbollah in the north," Dichter said. "Beit Hanoun (a town in the northern Gaza Strip) should be turned into a ghost town."
Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired hundreds of crude rockets, known as Kassams, at Israeli border towns in more than five years of fighting. Israeli has launched air strikes and artillery fire at rocket squads, but has been unable to stop the barrage.
Last Wednesday, the violent Islamic Jihad group fired homemade rockets at residential areas in the border town of Sderot, with one projectile landing near the home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz.
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