Israel Targets Palestinian PM

The Israeli government today threatened to assassinate the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, if rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip are not halted, reports the Guardian. Deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh declared on the radio, "There is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from strike."  

The threat was prompted by a rocket that killed a woman in Southern Israel yesterday, the first fatality from a Palestinian attack since November. Sneh said Israel makes no distinction between Hamas political leaders and insurgents. "For what does political Hamas do? It gives the operational approval to those who are doing the fighting." (More Middle East stories.)