Hamas leaders are "marked for death" and won't have a moment's rest, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned yesterday, after Israel botched an attempt to kill the top Hamas echelon with a 250kg bomb a warplane dropped on a Gaza City apartment.
Hamas threatened unprecedented revenge, saying Israel had "opened the gates of hell" with the attack on its revered founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who escaped with a minor injury. Israel declared a high security alert and imposed a blanket closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and security officials said the Shin Bet security service tightened protection of Israeli leaders.
In the West Bank, the search began for a successor to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who resigned Saturday after a debilitating power struggle with President Yasser Arafat.
Arafat has not yet accepted the resignation in writing, as required by law, but told Palestinian lawmakers he considered Abbas' Cabinet a caretaker government, implying recognition of the resignation. Yesterday, however, Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said the leader hoped to persuade Abbas -- also known as Abu Mazen -- to remain and form a new government.
"Abu Mazen remains Arafat's first choice. But if he insists on maintaining his resignation, there will be a new appointment, and that will be discussed now and tomorrow," Abu Rdeneh said, emerging from a closed-door meeting where Arafat and leaders of his Fatah movement were discussing options. "Within 48 hours, we will reach a conclusion."
Abbas insisted his decision was final on Saturday and told a confidant he felt abandoned by all sides and was deeply hurt. But a source close to Abbas said yesterday that he might serve again, but only if he reached a firm agreement with Arafat on his powers and on the composition of the government beforehand; the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this would be difficult.
At yesterday's meeting many Fatah officials said they hoped to convince Abbas to serve again, said Hussein Sheikh, a West Bank Fatah leader.
Abbas' resignation left Israel and the US without a negotiating partner, at least temporarily, and dealt a severe blow to the already troubled US-backed "road map" peace plan. The two nations refuse to deal with Arafat, saying he is tainted by terror and an obstacle to peace.
If the resignation becomes final, Arafat has three weeks to name a successor. Among possible candidates is parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia, who is seen as a moderate and has credibility with Israel because he was an architect of the 1990s peace accords.
In coming days, the Israeli Cabinet also will reconsider possible action against Arafat, including his expulsion, said Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who renewed a call for kicking Arafat out.
"As long as Arafat is in the region, he won't let any other leader develop," Shalom told Israel Army Radio.
Government spokesman Dore Gold said all blame fell to Arafat, "who refused to let Mahmoud Abbas rule as prime minister, who refused to let him dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism."
The US has blocked Arafat's expulsion in the past, and Sharon's security advisers have warned that Arafat could do more harm to Israel abroad than by remaining trapped at his West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told Israel Army Radio that Arafat's expulsion would be "disastrous," but did not explain further.
Israel's strike against the Hamas leadership Saturday came just several hours after Abbas announced his resignation.
A top Israeli security official said Abbas' departure released Israel from the last restraints in its war on the militants.
Security officials said Sharon and his military chiefs learned early Saturday that Hamas leaders, including Yassin, his top aide Ismail Hanieh and chief bombmakers Mohammed Deif and Adnan al-Ghoul would meet at the apartment of a Hamas activist, Marwan Abu Ras, later in the day.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, army chief Lieutenant-General Moshe Yaalon, Shin Bet director Avi Dichter and Air Force chief Major-General Dan Halutz rushed to the army's Tel Aviv headquarters to supervise the operation, the officials said.
By mid-afternoon Saturday, some 10 top Hamas members were assembled at the home of Abu Ras, a university lecturer, the Israeli officials said. With Sharon giving the final go-ahead, an F-16 fighter plane fired a laser-guided bomb at the home, damaging the middle floor.
The top floor was still under construction, and Yassin and the others apparently were on the ground floor. Sixteen people in the house were hurt, including Yassin.
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