Israel Threatens To Kill Palestinian PM

Taken from The Guardian, UK, May 22, 2007
By James Orr and agencies

The Israeli government today said its military could attempt to kill the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, to end rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

Ephraim Sneh, Israel's deputy defence minister, declared in a radio interview that "no one" in the Hamas leaderships was "immune from strike".

Sneh issued the threat a day after an Israeli woman was killed by a rocket in the southern town of Sderot, in the first fatality in a Palestinian strike since November.

Israeli air strikes over the last week have killed at least 34 Palestinians, including four Islamic Jihad militants described by the military as a rocket-launching squad.

When asked if Haniyeh was on Israel's hit list, Sneh told Israel Radio: "I'll put it like this - there is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from a strike.

"For what does political Hamas do? It gives the operational approval to those who are doing the fighting."

Senior Israeli officials say some 150 rockets have been fired from Gaza in the current wave of attacks.

The latest Israeli air strikes in Gaza destroyed a metal foundry that officials claimed produced weapons, and a building described as a command centre for Hamas militants.
There were no reports of casualties.

Yesterday, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, criticised by an official inquiry over his handling of last year's costly Lebanon war, was quoted by the YNet news website as telling Sderot residents that there was no immediate solution to the rocket attacks.

He was later booed by local people as he visited the town to express his sadness over the death there.

Palestinian officials said the president, Mahmoud Abbas, planned to travel to Gaza to speak to leaders about maintaining law and order after weeks of fighting between his Fatah faction and Hamas.

The Palestinian foreign minister, Ziad Abu Amr, said the president may discuss the possibility of resuming a Gaza truce with Israel.

Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas official and senior adviser to Haniyeh, renewed a longstanding call for a comprehensive ceasefire with Israel extending to the occupied West Bank.

"The (Palestinian) government is ready to get the factions to accept a ceasefire if Israel stops the series of killings and raids (in the West Bank)," Youssef told reporters.

Israel has said its raids to detain suspected militants in the West Bank are aimed at preventing attacks on Israelis.

The Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said yesterday that Hamas had exploited periods of calm to "build up its power" and smuggle weapons across the Egyptian border into Gaza.