Israeli PM warns Hamas will face a 'wall of steel'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahutold community leaders in a southern border townthat Israel is engaged in a "lengthy battle" following a weekend duringwhich the military struck several Hamassites in Gaza, and the militant group retaliated with rocket and mortar fire.

Netanyahu's visit to Sderoton Monday camea day after an informalceasefire took hold to end 24 hours of fighting with Hamas militants that had threatened to devolve into all-out war.

Israel pounded Hamas targets in Gaza in its most massive bombardmentsince the 2014 war, while militants fired dozens of rockets towardIsrael that halted daily life in the area.

Two Palestinian teenagerswere killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, while four Israelis were wounded from a rocket that landed on a home in Sderot.

Netanyahu visited a local kindergarten and pledged that Israel would put an end to the rocket fire and a Gaza militant campaign of sending incendiary kites and balloons across the border that haveignited firesdamaging Israeli farms and nature reserves.

He saidHamas will face a "wall of steel" if it keeps up itsaggression against Israel, but added that the threatwouldn't disappear overnight.

"It doesn't end in one strike," Netanyahu said. "We know weare engaged in a lengthy battle."

On Saturday, the Israeli military struck several Hamas militarycompounds and flattened a number of its training camps. Hamasretaliated with more than 200 rockets and mortars toward Israelicommunities.

After Hamas accepted an Egypt-mediated ceasefire late Saturday,the situation calmed down,but flaming kites and balloons continuedto waft over into Israel, with the military signalling a new policyof striking back immediately.

The government is under pressure from local communities to showzero tolerance to this new threat, and Netanyahu told local leadershe hadinstructed the military to halt it completely.

On Sunday evening, the military announced that following a"situation assessment," it had reinforced its Iron Dome batteries incentral Israel and in the country's south, and called up a smallnumber of reserve army soldiers. The Iron Dome shot down more than20 projectiles over the weekend.

Tensions have been running high along the Israel-Gaza border for several months. Aceasefire at the end of May followed the largest flare-up of violence between the sides in four years.