Barak says Israel to hit Hamas again if necessary

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says Israel will strike against Gaza militants again if necessary. Barak says he hopes the truce that ended Israel's three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers holds. But he says Israel is prepared to act again if Hamas continues to fire rockets at southern Israel.
``Hamas was hit like it was never hit before,'' he told Israel's Channel 10 TV on Friday. ``If we will have to hit Hamas again, we will.'' Israeli launched its offensive on December 27 to stop eight years of near-daily militant rocket fire from Gaza at southern Israeli towns. Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, about half of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians.