Israel to reinstitute 'assassinations policy'

JERUSALEM

Israel's foreign minister on Thursday said Tel Aviv would return to "the policy of assassinations" against Palestinian resistance figures in the Gaza Strip.

In statements he made to Israel's army radio, Yisrael Katz indicated that there was "an intelligence effort to identify the rockets' launchers and work to eliminate them."

He stressed: "Intelligence efforts are currently focused on determining who is responsible for ordering missile launch instructions in order to work to eliminate him."

On Wednesday evening, Israel's iron dome anti-missile system intercepted a missile reportedly fired from the Gaza Strip towards the country's south while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was attending an election rally in Ashkelon province.

According to Israeli media, security forces transferred Netanyahu to a "protected area" while security forces responded by bombing several sites in the Gaza Strip without any casualties.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara