Israel could target Hamas leaders, including Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh, if the militant group renews attacks in the Jewish state, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said yesterday.
"No one there is immune, not just Ismail Haniyeh," Mofaz told Army Radio in response to a question about whether Israel regarded him as a target for assassination.
"The moment Hamas chooses the path of terror, there is no question here of political or non-political [leadership]. This would be a terrorist leadership, and therefore none of its members would be immune," Mofaz said.
Mofaz's remarks, three weeks before Israel's March 28 general election, echoed recent comments by interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security advisers.
Olmert heads the centrist Kadima party, to which Mofaz belongs, and both men have been taking a tough public line on security as election day approaches.
Mofaz told Israel's Army Radio that Israel's policy of targeted killings has proven to be effective, and will continue.
Salah al-Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman, denounced Mofaz's comments.
"This statement and Israeli practices on the ground reflect the bloody, inhumane and inflammatory character of the Zionist enemy," al-Bardawil said.
"We are not seeking immunity or mercy from Israel. We are in a confrontation. The side that is most steadfast is the side that will survive," she said.
Hamas headed into a domestic confrontation on Monday by stripping Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of powers his then-ruling Fatah Party granted him in its last session.
Fatah delegates walked out of parliament in protest, charging that Hamas was twisting the rules to nullify Abbas' additional authority. They planned to extend their protest yesterday by boycotting the parliamentary session, a Fatah official said.
The Hamas-Fatah conflict has been simmering since Hamas swept Fatah out of office in January, winning 74 seats in the new parliament to Fatah's 45.
Azzam al-Ahmed, Fatah's parliamentary faction leader, said yesterday that Fatah would file suit against Hamas in the Palestinian Supreme Court in the course of the day.
"They used their majority to infringe the law on behalf of their interests, and we are resorting now to the judiciary to help us protect the law," al-Ahmed said.
Some legal experts say Abbas has the authority to cancel Hamas' action on Monday, a move that would perpetuate the standoff.
Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in an election in January and his term has three years to run, regardless of the makeup of the parliament.
Meanwhile an airstrike on Monday killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three other people in the Gaza Strip, one an eight-year-old boy, Palestinian witnesses said.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike on a car carrying the two militants.
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
RSS