Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Sunday to hit back "severely" if fighters in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip continue to fire rockets into Israel, as President Shimon Perez urged world powers to hand over the Gaza reconstruction funds to the PLO and not to Hamas.As the Israeli cabinet met, a rocket fired from Gaza slammed into empty ground south of the Israeli port city of Ashkelon, causing neither casualties nor damage, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
"If the rocket fire from Gaza continues, we will hit back severely, so much so that the terrorist organizations will understand that Israel is not ready to resign itself to this," Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
"At the end of the week, 11 rockets were fired against southern Israel," he said. "Defense Minister Ehud Barak will give directions so that Israeli forces bring calm to southern Israel."
Olmert was speaking a day before an international conference on rebuilding Gaza is to be held in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.