PRESSURE MOUNTED yesterday on the Israeli government to act as Palestinian militants in Gaza again pounded southern Israel with rockets and mortar fire.
After more than a dozen projectiles landed in Israel, defence minister Ehud Barak ordered the Israel Defence Forces to draw up plans to put a stop to the rocket fire.
Addressing the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, two days after Hamas declared that the six-month truce would not be renewed, prime minister Ehud Olmert said the different scenarios were clear.
"A responsible government does not seek to go to war, but also does not shy away from it," Mr Olmert said. But other ministers said the time had come to act.
Foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who replaced Mr Olmert as leader of the Kadima party, promised to end Hamas rule in Gaza if she becomes prime minister after the elections in February.
"The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza," she told members of her centrist party.
Other ministers advocated a large-scale military push into Gaza before the elections, arguing it was only a matter of time before civilians were killed.
Transport minister Shaul Mofaz told Army Radio: "It is time to act. What are we waiting for? What else needs to happen? Are we waiting for children to die?"
One rocket yesterday hit a house in the town of Sderot; others landed in a kibbutz and the industrial zone of the town of Ashkelon.
One person was lightly wounded and a resident of Sderot suffered shock.
Israeli aircraft twice targeted rocket launchers and seized a Palestinian close to the border.
Israel has kept the border crossings into Gaza closed in response to the rocket fire, causing serious shortages.
Abu Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for some of the rockets fired yesterday, said Israeli citizens would "not sleep peacefully as long as Gaza children are not enjoying water, electricity, medicine and peace".
Israeli leaders hoped the harsh economic blockade would undermine the popularity of Hamas, which seized control of Gaza from its secular rivals, Fatah, last year.
But Hamas has managed to shore up its rule in the coastal Strip. It has used the six-month truce to build hundreds of tunnels and smuggle in thousands of rockets and other supplies.