Terror organizations in the Gaza Strip have significantly improved their ability to attack Israeli population centers, according to a Tuesday assessment by Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin.
In recent days, several successful tests of Iranian-made rockets have been carried out, he said, adding that the rockets have a range of up to 60 kilometers. As a result, the Tel Aviv area is under threat of rocket fire from the Strip.
Yadlin went on to stress that Teheran was operating the recently-revealed Iranian nuclear facility near Qom for military purposes.
The MI chief also warned that Iran was continuing to smuggle weapons to its local proxies with great vigor – not only through Syria, but also through Turkey.
Minister-Without-Portfolio Benny Begin expressed similar sentiments, saying that Hamas was "in effect, an extension of Iran" and that Hizbullah was another such extension.
During an Army Radio interview on Tuesday, Begin said that when Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, "people assumed that the international community would not hold Israel accountable for what occurred there anymore." After the disengagement, he said, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip
and began to fire rockets into Israeli territory.
Begin asserted that "although the cities of the South are no different from Tel Aviv," 60-kilometer missile ranges showed that Hamas was "continually striving" for greater military capabilities.
"As long as there is no comprehensive agreement concerning border crossings, the deterrence we achieved during Operation Cast Lead will grow weaker," he said.
During Operation Cast Lead last winter, Grad-type rockets, Kassam rockets, and mortar shells were fired into Israeli territory, with projectiles hitting Beersheba, some 40 kilometers from the Strip.
Though rocket fire from the Strip has decreased since the three-week offensive, weapons are continually smuggled through tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
AP contributed to this report