Eshkol Regional Council head Michal Uziyahu said Saturday that concluding a deal to return Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip is the way to bring calm and security to the region.

The Eshkol Regional Council (which includes 32 settlements around Gaza), an area adjacent to the Palestinian city of Rafah.

The Hebrew website Walla quoted a statement from the Eshkol Regional Council as saying, "Following the escalation of gunfire towards the Gaza envelope towns in recent days, Uziyahu spoke with Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and with army officials, in order to review the current security situation."

Speaking to Katz, Uziyahu said: "We must act decisively today because we will not accept the continuation of a reality in which rocket fire is part of our daily routine, while we participate in the reconstruction of the settlements."

Uziyahu addressed the political leadership in Israel, saying that the Eshkol Council "calls for a courageous deal that will change the regional reality, return our captive brothers who were brutally taken from their homes and are dying in captivity, and bring quiet and security to the settlements surrounding it."

Earlier on Saturday, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said, "For 9 days now, the sirens warning of rocket fire have been activated continuously in the Gaza Strip, while residents are trying as much as possible to return to their normal lives."

She added: "Last month, it turned out that about half of the warnings about rocket fire from the Gaza envelope were false alarms."

"This scenario, where frightened residents run to shelters in anticipation of explosions only to discover that they are false alarms, has become part of the routine of life in the area," she continued.

She added: "After more than 20 years of rocket fire (from Gaza), residents were hoping that these rockets would at least stop while the Israeli army forces were present in the Strip after about 15 months of fighting."

According to the newspaper, the Israeli occupation army has increased the sensitivity of its sensors since the beginning of the war in order to detect any air threat, even if it is small.

"This sensitivity comes at a price," she added. "These sensors may mistakenly identify birds or machine gun bullets as missiles, triggering false alarms."

She stated that the position of the Israeli occupation army is clear in this regard: “A false alarm is better than no alarm, which could cost human losses.”

She added: "However, the Israeli army is well aware of the psychological and social cost of this phenomenon, and says it is conducting ongoing investigations to improve accuracy and reduce the scope of false alarms."

She added: "Tens of thousands of residents of the Gaza envelope area dreamed and hoped to return to their homes, but the reality for many of them (after their return) turned out to be just a renewed confrontation with the same feeling of insecurity that had become part of their daily routine."

According to the data, in recent months, about 53,000 out of about 64,000 residents of the settlements adjacent to Gaza (83 percent) returned to their homes that they left when the war broke out.