"Any civilized society will not tolerate such wanton attacks on its civilians"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel stands ready to act with “great force” and “great determination” to put an end to attacks by Palestinian resistance fighters, a day after the Israeli occupation launched strikes on Gaza.

Netanyahu told reporters before a meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Israel had been "subjected to bouts of terror and rocket attacks," referring to occupied Jerusalem operation against Israel that killed one and wounded more than 30 people. This operation followed an aggressive Israeli attack on unarmed Gaza people that martyred 8, four of them were children.
  
Israeli fighter jets have struck four targets in the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, injuring several Palestinians, security sources and witnesses said. It follows three airstrikes carried out on Gaza early Thursday morning, targeting the city as well as a tunnel near the Egyptian border at Rafah.
The prime minister said he had received a "very warm" phone call from US President Barack Obama on Thursday expressing his condolences over the latest attacks. "Any civilized society will not tolerate such wanton attacks on its civilians," he said.
  
Gates, a former CIA director with years of experience in Washington, said US-Israel security ties were as strong as they had ever been at a time when the region is in "turmoil."
  
In Tel Aviv on Thursday, Gates said Washington firmly backed “Israel's right” to respond to the both the rocket fire and the Jerusalem bombing, which he described as "repugnant acts."
  
But he suggested Israel should tread carefully or risk derailing the course of popular unrest sweeping Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East.

After his talks with Netanyahu, Gates is due to head to the West Bank to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Earlier on Thursday Netanyahu said that if Hamas chooses to escalate cross-border tensions, Israel's reaction to the attacks will be measured.

Netanyahu spoke during his visit in Moscow, and sources close to the prime minister said that he was not eager to launch a comprehensive operation in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu said that the Palestinian Authority and its president Mahmoud Abbas must choose between continuing negotiations with Hamas or continuing talks with ‘Israel’.

In his meetings with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, Netanyahu asked them to stop supplying anti-ship missiles to Syria. He noted that following the revolutions in the Middle East, Russia must think over well such deals.