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PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (file)
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| By israelinsider staff May 21, 2007 |
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As Israel follows through on yesterday's decision to resume targeted assassinations, leaving five dead Monday from Israel Air Force strikes in Gaza, cabinet ministers warned Hamas political leaders that they too could be targeted in efforts to stem the continuing Qassam fire.
Four more rockets were fired into Israel's south Monday, adding to the more than 130 fired in the past week, as Hamas leaders called for the end of Israel, promising further attacks, in response to continued IAF action.
Cabinet minister's warned Monday that Hamas political leaders could be targets as Israel endeavors to halt Qassam fire. The cabinet decided Sunday to resume targeted killings of Hamas politicians and military commanders.
"I don't distinguish between those who carry out the [rocket] attacks and those who give the orders. I say we have to put them all in the crosshairs," said National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer on Israel Radio.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Monday that even Hamas' exiled political leader Khaled Mashaal was not "immune" to being targeted by Israel.
"Khaled Mashaal is not immune, and he is well aware of this," said Dichter, speaking of Israel's renewed plan of targeted killings, "If [PA Prime Minister Ismail] Haniyeh is part of a leadership that is planning terror attacks then he, too, is definitely a target."
Dichter said, however, that there is no one answer to stopping Qassam fire, and that Israel still had other options.
"There is no lever that you can push - targeted killings or whatever else - that simply solves the problem," he said. "The fight against terror is made up of various tactics and the creation of deterrence. This is what will reduce and ultimately stop Qassams and terror attacks."
"I don't want to simplify it," he continued, "because there is an entire series of [possible steps to be taken]," he said, but added that he hoped Israel wouldn't have to use all of them.
Dichter also mentioned captured soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, saying that it would be wrong to limit Israeli action due to the possible threat on his life.
Hamas threats
In response to a Sunday attack supposedly on the home of a Hamas lawmaker, and continued IAF action, those from Hamas called for Israel's destruction and threatened attacks to make that destruction a reality.
In an interview with the "Voice of Palestine" radio station, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told the IDF to avoid civilians in its attacks, but ordered Palestinians to attack anything and everything Israeli, because Israel had declared war on the Palestinians, he claimed.
Top Hamas political leader, Nizar Riyan, stated that it was a decided policy of the party that Israel be erased and replaced by a Palestinian state, and that rockets and missiles were the means to achieve that end, Israel Radio reported.
"It is a definite decision within the organization that Israel will be removed from the map, to be replaced by a Palestinian state," declared Riyan in an interview with Hamas Television.
Riyan urged Palestinian factions to "Shell Ashkelon until its residents clear out, as did the residents of Sderot," and "continue to fight the Jews until the last of them is gone from Palestine."
Hamas' military wing, Izzadin Qassam also threatened that Sderot residents would not even be safe from Qassam attacks in Ashkelon, a city to where many have fled.
Both Izzadin Qassam and a Hamas-affiliated parliament group called for suicide bombings and attacks on IDF troops operating in Gaza in response to the continued IAF attacks.
IDF troops in the area have been told to be on alert for kidnappings and attacks, reported Army Radio.
"Israeli forces in the area of the Gaza Strip have been instructed to raise their alertness level for fear that terror organizations may attempt to carry out kidnappings," Army Radio reported.
Last June, Hamas and another group killed two soldiers, wounded another four, and took Cpl. Gilad Shalit captive in an attack on an IDF post in Israel, bordering Gaza.
Concern over potential attacks on IDF soldiers has increased as IAF airstrikes continue, especially after last night's attack that left eight dead and 13 wounded.
IAF action
IAF airstrikes continued Monday as Palestinian gunmen persisted to launch Qassams into Israel's south. Four rockets landed Monday, one of which hit a road, damaging it. No one was reported injured. Fifteen rockets hit the western Negev city of Sderot Sunday, bringing to total to more than 130 launched into Israel in the past week.
IAF attacks left five dead Monday. In the most recent attack, IAF forces targeted a car in northern Gaza, killing four operatives, Palestinian officials said.
Islamic Jihad claimed that the four killed were members of its organization.
The IDF confirmed the attack, which had been in the Jebaliya refugee camp.
Earlier Monday the IAF killed one man whom IDF sources claim to be a weapons manufacturer connected to Hamas in an attack on a metal factory in Gaza. According to Palestinian sources, the building was a stonemason's workshop.
IDF soldiers also raided one TV channel and two radio stations connected with Hamas, along with two other TV stations, taking them all off the air Monday.
Also the IDF knocked out electricity for approximately 50,000 Gazans when it shelled northern Gaza.
Sunday night an IAF attack killed eight and wounded 13. According to the IDF, the attack had been on a terror cell, and that it was possible that shrapnel from the attack hit the house of Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya.
Palestinian sources claim that an IAF missile struck al-Haya's house, and that at least six of the eight killed were al-Haya's relatives. Al-Haya was slightly injured.
Palestinian sources also said that an IDF shell hit a house in the Jabalya refugee camp Sunday night, wounding three adults and three children of a family.
According to IDF sources, the military actions taken thus far are not enough to stop Hamas from continuing its rocket attacks.
"We need to work in a way that is clear that they will pay a price for all Qassam attacks," stated Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz in a Jerusalem Post interview after yesterday's cabinet meeting. "The leadership needs to feel hunted and persecuted." |
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