Israeli President Shimon Peres urged UN Security Council ambassadors Thursday to call for a halt to attacks on Israel from Gaza after members of the military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for firing an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus in southern Israel, critically wounding a 16-year-old teen and seriously injuring the driver.
The attack occurred outside Kibbutz Sa’ad in the Negev.
The 16-year-old boy was in critical condition after paramedics managed to resuscitate him. He was airlifted to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba where he was undergoing surgery. Soroka officials said that he was suffering from head injuries.
Shortly afterwards, another 15 mortar rounds landed in southern Israel, one of which slammed into a house in a community directly opposite Deir al-Balah, an Israeli police spokesman said.
"If you want to bring peace to Gaza, the right way and the honest way is to tell the people of Gaza to stop shooting, stop smuggling arms," Peres told the ambassadors.
The Israeli president, who spoke to the ambassadors at the International Peace Institute in New York, noted that Israel had withdrawn from Gaza and had no intention of returning, but was still coming under attack from there.
"We have to think very seriously what will happen in the West Bank and if the United Nations can provide us with the answer to the security, go ahead," he said.
But he added: "We cannot have crossfire from Gaza and from the West Bank."
Israel responded by shelling two separate areas in Gaza, killing one person and wounding at least 10, the Palestinian emergency services said.
"Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the IDF (army) to act swiftly with all the necessary means and to respond to the attack on the bus at Sa'ad Junction," a statement from his office said.
"Defense Minister Barak added that he considers Hamas to be responsible for all incidents coming from Gaza."
An Israeli military spokesman said that raid was a pre-emptive strike against Palestinian terrorists planning to attack Israelis on holiday in the Sinai Peninsula during the coming Jewish festival of Passover.