At least five Palestinians and an Israeli woman were killed today in fresh attacks by both sides and a senior Israeli cabinet minister said all Hamas leaders involved in cross-border rocket fire could be targeted.
The woman's death in the southern Israeli town of Sderot marked the first casualty in a Palestinian rocket attack since November and is likely to stoke further Israeli anger at what Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called an "intolerable" situation.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent days, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and the militant Hamas group have struggled to maintain calm between their own fighters following weeks of internal fighting. Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and Hamas all claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
Hamas had avoided such strikes after most militant groups declared a truce months ago but had renewed them following Israeli violence. Israel's security cabinet decided yesterday to escalate military action in response to some 150 rockets fired from Gaza since last week, which have put political pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"It is our obligation to harm the rocket launchers and our obligation is to continue to harm Hamas," Mr Livni said during a news conference in Sderot with European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana.
Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel should target all militant leaders. "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," he told Israel Radio.
An Israeli air strike killed at least four members of Islamic Jihad on their way to launch rockets at the Jewish state from the northern Gaza Strip Thousands of Hamas supporters had earlier taken to the streets of Gaza City and gunmen fired into the air, vowing revenge, one day after an Israeli air strike on the home of Hamas politician Khalil al-Hayya.