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Israel Planning Another Gaza Campaign, Minister Says

VOA News

   An Israeli security cabinet minister said Thursday that there would
   beanother military campaign in Gaza, following the latest exchange of
   rocket fire between Israel and Hamas militants.

   "We will decide the timing, and we will decide the conditions," Yoav
   Galant, minister of construction, told Israel'sReshet13 television. "I
   will not play into Hamas' hands when it is the one that wants to do
   this [escalation]."

   Israel saidit struck several Hamas targets in Gaza, including what it
   saidwas a terrorist tunnel, in response to Hamas rocket fire late
   Wednesday. Another rocket was launched into southern Israel late
   Thursday.

   Neither side reported casualties.

   The Hamas rocket fire was an apparent response to Israel's putting
   Mediterranean waters off-limits to Palestinian fishermen--a reaction to
   the sending of incendiary balloons over southern Israel this week,
   which set some fields on fire.

   This was the first exchange of rocket fire between Israel and Hamas
   since last month's Egyptian-mediated cease-fire that ended two days of
   heavy fighting.

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