Israel could kill Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in retaliation for cross-border rocket attacks by the Islamist group in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said today.
Israel has launched air strikes and ground fire that have killed 27 Palestinians during a week-old flare-up in cross-border violence.
Asked if Mr Haniyeh was on Israel's hit-list, Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said in a radio interview: "I'll put it like this - there is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from a strike.
"For what does political Hamas do? It gives the operational approval, if not the actual ratification, to those who are doing the fighting," Mr Sneh said.
"When someone preaches that the state of Israel should be destroyed, he is not in the political echelon, he is a terrorist in a suit."
Hamas's 1988 founding charter calls for the Jewish state's destruction but, since taking power in Palestinian elections last year, the group has proposed a long-term truce with Israel.
Elsewhere, the group Fatah al-Islam claimed responsibility for two bombs that rocked Christian and Sunni Muslim districts of Beirut in the last two days and threatened to set Beirut "ablaze" again.