Military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.Gabi Ashkenazi and senior Shin Bet security officials said so far this year, 970 rockets and 1,200 mortar shells were fired into Israel from Gaza by Palestinian militants, Ynetnews.com reported.

Those attacks resulted in the deaths of three Israeli soldiers and two civilians, the cabinet was told.

Regardless, the group voted to continue with its existing strategy of conducting targeted operations, such as one on Tuesday, where more than 40 terror suspects were rounded up in the Gaza Strip, the report said.

Israel has conducted 115 raids into the Gaza Strip this year, and 260 suspected terrorists were killed, the report said.

The cabinet met as Palestinian-Israeli peace talks began in Jerusalem, as arranged last month at an international U.S.-hosted summit in Annapolis, Md.