The IDF gathered intelligence on Hamas terror sites months ago, but did not act until the latest escalation.

Military spokesmen, in summing up Sunday’s counterterrorist maneuvers, said that details of terror sites have been collected for months, providing the IDF ample information for pinpoint strikes.

“Gaza has turned into an Iranian base that places Israeli civilians under missile fire and intolerable terror,” the IDF stated.

The Navy and Air Force have struck 1,350 targets since the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense, including 80 overnight, one of them the underground launching site of the missile that killed three people in Kiryat Malakhi.

“Underground launchers, smuggling tunnels used by terrorists, weapons depots, terror cells and terrorist training camps” were targeted Sunday night, the IDF added.

The aerial and sea strikes are aimed at dismantling the terrorist infrastructure that Hamas and Fatah have built for more than two decades.

Hamas sped up the stockpiling of weapons and solidifying its army after the Israeli government, headed by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ordered the expulsion in 2005 of all Jews from Jewish communities in Gaza and the withdrawal of all military personnel. Most of the weapons arrived to Sudan and the Sinai, crossed Egyptian territory without interference and were brought into Gaza through smuggling tunnels.