Peres: IDF operations in Gaza would target terrorist areas only

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Army Radio Thursday that Israel does not intend to take over the Gaza Strip but that the goal of IDF operations there would be "to reach areas where there is a concentration of suicide terrorists."

Peres also said he hoped that the operations would last for a short period of time.

Opposition leader MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) warned against any military incursion into the Gaza Strip.

"An IDF incursion into Gaza Strip refugee camps would invite Jenin-like tragedies and could exact a bloody price from Israel", Sarid said.

The IDF began massing forces on the border with the Gaza Strip late Wednesday night, in preparation for a retaliatory operation following the suicide bomb attack in Rishon Letzion which killed 15 people.

The army was also reportedly preparing to issue additional emergency call-up orders to reservists.