Hamas has accused Israel of launching a strategy to assassinate Palestinian leaders who oppose Ariel Sharon’s plans to impose an emasculated form of independence on the occupied territories.
The militant Islamist organisation described the Israeli helicopter rocket attack that killed one of its co-founders, Ibrahim Makadme, in Gaza on Saturday as a marked shift towards the targeting of its political leaders. Hamas said it would retaliate directly against Mr Sharon, his cabinet and government officials. “This opens new doors,” said Mahmoud Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas’s political wing. “All Israeli officials have fixed addresses. We will hit them in their homes, offices, cars. We are going to respond according to the proverb: an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose.” The Israeli army described Makadme as a “terror policy maker” and a “central figure who instigated, directed and approved the Hamas military operations” for 20 years. Full Story
