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Israel says Hamas leader Haniyeh a legitimate target

Israel threatened yesterday to kill Hamas leaders and launch a ground offensive in Gaza unless international pressure was brought on the ruling Islamist group to halt cross-border rocket attacks.

Asked if Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was on Israel's hit-list, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said: "There is no one in the leading, commanding circle of Hamas who has immunity."

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, said in response in Gaza: "Any harm to Prime Minister Haniyeh or any Hamas leader would mean a change in the rules of the game and the occupier [Israel] must be ready to pay an unprecedented price."

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, meeting the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, called on the international community to take action immediately to try to persuade Hamas to stop launching the makeshift rockets.

Abu Zuhri said Israel must first stop all its attacks on Palestinians before the group and other factions could consider halting their own strikes.

The Israeli army said about 150 rockets have been fired from Gaza in a week in which Hamas, which had been battling the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, turned to attacks against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of aiding its rival.

A woman was killed on Monday in the Israeli town of Sderot, the first fatality in a Palestinian rocket attack since November.

Israeli air strikes over the past week have killed at least 34 Palestinians, medical officials said in Gaza. Militant groups said 23 of the dead were fighters.

"Now this is a test for European diplomacy. It is a test for US diplomacy. It is a test for the diplomacy of the free world. If the rockets do not stop, we will not stop," Peretz said, with Solana at his side.

"We have been acting very, very patiently. We have been biting our lip and trying not to get to a situation whereby we have to enter into a ground operation," he said.
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