Source: The Guardian, 21-5-2007
All Hamas leaders should be killed to end rocket attacks from Gaza, a senior "Israeli" cabinet official said today, as "Israeli" planes carried out new air strikes in the territory.
"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 Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the national infrastructure minister, on "Israel" Radio.
The comments from Mr Ben-Eliezer, a foreign policy hawk, came on a day that at least four members of Islamic Jihad, were killed in their car near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. The militant group said they were on their way to launch rockets.
One man was killed in an earlier attack on what "Israel" called a rocket manufacturing facility but what Palestinians said was a stonemason`s shop. The air strikes knocked out electricity for about 50,000 people.
"Israel" targeted Hamas in the West Bank as well, raiding and shutting down four television stations linked with Hamas in the city of Nablus, a militant stronghold.
Yesterday, "Israeli" jets struck the home of a Hamas politician, Khalil al-Hayya. He was not there but hospital officials said eight people were killed in the deadliest attack since "Israel" started retaliating to rocket salvos from Gaza last week.
The "Israeli" army spokeswoman Captain Noa Meir claimed the strike was not aimed at Mr Haya, but at a group of five armed Hamas men, including a senior militant, near the home.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top aide to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned "Israel" for the attack.
"This escalation will lead the Middle East to more violence and instability," he said.
As "Israel" increased the military pressure on Hamas, the internal security minister, Avi Dichter, said Hamas`s leader-in-exile, Khaled Meshaal, whom "Israel" tried to assassinate in Jordan in 1997, would not be "immune" from "Israeli" attack.
Mr Dichter told "Israel" Radio that the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader who lives in Gaza, could be targeted should he become involved in ordering the rocket fire.
Hamas, which last carried out a self-sacrifice bombing in "Israel" in 2004, has threatened to respond with "an earthquake" to the air strikes.
In stepping up military action in response to continued rocket attacks, the "Israeli" cabinet has stopped short of authorising an all-out offensive on Gaza, which "Israel" left nearly two years ago.
Mr Ben-Eliezer said a large-scale ground operation in Gaza, where militants are dug in and deployed across residential areas, risked plunging "Israel" into a "quagmire".
"Israeli" military action and an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire seem to have largely stopped more than a week of intensive fighting between Hamas and Fatah.
Despite the air strikes, Gaza militants fired four more rockets at "Israel", the army said. There were no casualties.
The EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, is heading to the Middle East today to call for a halt to the latest upsurge in violence.
"Solana will urge all parties in the region to restore and maintain calm," a statement from his office said.