Major General Tal Russo, the commander of the IDF Southern Command, referred on Sunday to the latest events in Gaza and predicted that the latest escalation is far from over.

In the past week, Gaza-based terrorists have fired dozens of rockets at southern Israel. The escalation in rocket attacks began after an Israeli air strike on Sunday in Gaza hit two Global Jihad terrorists.

The terrorists responded by firing over 50 rockets at Israel during the holiday of Simchat Torah alone, with more being fired in the days that followed. Israel has retaliated by striking terror targets in Gaza. Five terrorists were killed in IAF air strikes on Sunday.

“It’s not over till it’s over. Just today we managed to foil two rocket attacks on Israeli territory,” said Russo.

He added, “We are in an interesting time period in which we are ready to face any challenge in this region and in general.”

Meanwhile, Colonel Tal Hermoni, the IDF’s outgoing Gaza Division commander, predicted that “we’ll see more attempts by the enemy to attack. The enemy has become more sophisticated and the attacks it carries out are more complex and better planned.”

He cited the incident at Kerem Shalom in August, during which terrorists were able to take over an Egyptian armored personnel carrier and enter into Israel as an example of the enemy’s carefully planned out attacks.

At the same time, Hermoni predicted that “it is not in the other side’s interest to enter another round of escalation at this stage.”