(Updating with Erekat comment, govt statement)
JERUSALEM (AFX) - Israel's security cabinet authorised the military to enlarge a security zone in northern Gaza in a bid to prevent Palestinian rocket attacks, officials said.
The cabinet also decided to step up air raids against Hamas and its Islamist-led government, as well as so-called targeted killing operations against militants who fire rockets or order such attacks, a participant told AFP.
'The cabinet instructed the defence establishment to prepare for gradual and lengthy military activity,' said a statement issued after the meeting.
The aims are 'damaging Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza, with an emphasis on institutions and terror infrastructure' and 'limiting movement of terrorists by severing the Gaza Strip and targeting terror infrastructure'.
'There should be preparations to bring about a change in the rules of the game and the conduct vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority and Hamas,' the statement said, reiterating the mission's aim of 'releasing the kidnapped soldier ... and stopping projectile fire.'
The no-go zone will be enforced by aircraft and artillery in a bid to stop the area from being used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets into southern Israel.
The army had also been authorised to surround the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanun and Beit Lahiya in order to cut them off from Gaza City.
The security cabinet had convened emergency talks to weigh a response to an unprecedented Palestinian rocket attack that caused extensive damage to a school in the heart of the coastal city of Ashkelon.
The armed wing of governing Palestinian faction Hamas claimed the attack, which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denounced as 'an unprecedented and severe escalation' which would have 'unprecedented and far-reaching consequences'.
But Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told Agence France-Presse the plan for a security zone would only make matters worse.
'Israel is using the recent developments as a pretext to impose fait accomplis. A security zone will not solve the problem, but on the contrary, help further the escalation and complications,' Erekat said.
Troops and tanks rolled into the northern Gaza Strip early Monday, where armoured vehicles and bulldozers have been searching for explosives and tunnels dug by militants around the outskirts of built-up areas.
Olmert last week delayed a planned large-scale offensive that would have seen troops move into the town of Beit Hanun following a request from Egypt to allow more time for negotiations to win the release of an Israeli soldier held by militants.
Overnight Israeli aircraft launched their eighth successive night of strikes over the Gaza Strip, attacking the Hamas-run interior ministry building for the second time in less than a week, causing substantial damage.
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper said Hamas had declared war on Israel with the attack on Ashkelon, arguing that the time had come to unleash a far harsher response.
'It is time to take off the gloves,' the paper said in an editorial. 'It is time to admit that Hamas has declared war on us. The State of Israel should begin to defend itself effectively.'
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