Following are excerpts from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting today:

“We will begin this morning with a discussion in wake of a discussion that was held by the special ministerial committee on completing matters regarding the reinforcement of structures in Sderot.  We will submit a proposal to reinforce thousands of residential units of an overall investment of NIS 327 million.  By 2010, this will enable us to give a worthy response within a multi-layered system for protecting the residents of Sderot and other communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip.  There is absolutely no intention to reinforce every residential unit and every structure and there is no extreme reinforcement, as I have said over time, there cannot be.  On the other hand, there will be a combination of several systems, with the Iron Dome system first and foremost.  It will provide a response to a significant portion of the actual threat posed by rockets – with various ranges – against the residents of the region.  There will also be early-warning systems and the reinforcing of new public structures and schools.  I would like to remind everyone – and this will be detailed today – that we are building 14 new schools there, alongside the schools that will be reinforced.  Every school in Sderot and in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip will be a third-generation school, of a quality and sophistication unparalleled anywhere in the country.  This is an investment of hundreds of millions of shekels, which joins other investments that have been made, which approaches NIS 1.5 billion in order to strengthen the area and ensure both security and quality of life.  In addition, of course, there is the daily war in the south, which claims a price of the terrorists that attack us.  Today, we will indeed approve a NIS 327 million proposal that will allow the reinforcement of thousands – and I emphasize – thousands of residential units in the first line of fire against Sderot and the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

In recent days, we have witnessed and very impressive and encouraging display of the nation’s solidarity with the residents of Sderot.  None of these displays is a substitute for the other things that need to be done.  We must establish a multi-layered defensive system.  We must complete Iron Dome.  We must continue to fight terrorism in the south.  We must reinforce we need to reinforce, the minimum that I think we have decided on.  It is both correct and important to give expression to displays of solidarity.  Thousands of people who have visited Sderot in recent days have, without doubt, given a better and stronger sense to the residents of Sderot, that they are not alone and that the Israel people are with them.”