Israeli leaders 'to topple Hamas'

Tzipi Livni said Israel must react when it is fired upon

The two leading candidates to become Israel's next prime minister have vowed if elected to topple the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, in Gaza.

The threats by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud party leader Binyamin Netanyahu came after PM Ehud Olmert warned against making bold statements.

A six-month Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas, which runs Gaza, came to an end on Friday.

On Sunday rockets fired by militants in Gaza hit a house in the town of Sderot.

No-one was injured in the attack, though a worker at a nearby farming community was hurt when another device landed in a field.

The Israeli military has said militants fired some 30 rockets and mortar bombs into Israel on Saturday. A Palestinian militant was killed in an Israeli air strike.

'Proper response'

At the Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday, the head of the country's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, said that Hamas had increased the range of its rockets during the ceasefire and could now hit several southern Israeli cities.

Israel will know how to give the proper response at the right time in the right way, responsibly Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Yuval Diskin said the rockets could now reach Kiryat Gat, Ashdod and even Beersheba, about 40km (25 miles) from Gaza.

He also told ministers that while Hamas had renewed its attacks, it was "interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms".

"It wants us to lift the siege [of Gaza], stop attacks, and extend the truce to include [the West Bank]," Mr Diskin added.

Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire on Friday, saying it had not respected its terms, including the lifting of the blockade under which little more than humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza.

Israel said it initially began a staged easing of the blockade, but this was halted when Hamas failed to fulfil what Israel says were agreed conditions, including ending all rocket fire and halting weapons smuggling.

Each side accuses the other of breaking the ceasefire

Prime Minister Olmert said during the cabinet meeting that the government had agreed to the ceasefire with Hamas last June with little doubt or hesitation.

"Israel has always hoped for and wanted quiet for the residents of the South and that they should enjoy genuine calm and be free of the threat of unceasing Qassam and mortar attacks that have disrupted life in the South for a very long period," he said.

Mr Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak also warned the cabinet and opposition parties against making "bold statements" about plans for a major military operation in Gaza.

"A government doesn't rush to battle, but doesn't avoid it either," Mr Olmert said. "Israel will know how to give the proper response at the right time in the right way, responsibly."

'Policy of attack'

Shortly afterwards, however, Ms Livni told a meeting of her Kadima party that she would topple Hamas if she became prime minister after the general election on 10 February.

Right now we have to go from passive response to active assault Benjamin Netanyahu Likud party

"The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza," she said. "The means for doing this should be military, economic and diplomatic.

"Israel must react when it is fired upon, must re-establish its force of dissuasion and stop the rockets," she added. "This is what has to be done and this is what I will do."

Mr Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud party is currently ahead in the polls, meanwhile called for a more "active policy of attack", accusing the current government of being too "passive".

"In the long-term, the toppling of the Hamas regime is inevitable," he said while visiting Sderot on Sunday.

He said residents of southern Israeli towns close to the Gaza Strip were "paying a hefty price for the mistakes made by Livni and her ministers" since the Israeli withdrawal from the territory in 2005.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza and former Palestinian prime minister, dismissed the Israeli threats.

"Nothing can finish off our people," he said. "It is not our people who are escalating the situation; it is the Israeli occupation which should have stuck to the conditions of the truce."

The BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem says the countdown to February's election has started with the candidates eager to court an electorate fearful of the future.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that a "major escalation of violence would have grave consequences for the protection of civilians in Israel and Gaza, the welfare of the Gazan civilian population, and the sustainability of political efforts".

Israeli jets target Gaza tunnels

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Israel hit new targets overnight, as troops stayed on alert by the border

Israeli jets have launched a second day of air attacks on the Gaza Strip, amid warnings that operations will continue until Hamas ends rocket fire from Gaza.

In the latest raids jets bombed tunnels in the Rafah area, used to bring supplies into Gaza from Egypt. Israel says they are used for arms smuggling.

Palestinians now say at least 280 people have died in the air raids.

Israel is said to be considering a ground assault and has authorised a call-up of 6,500 army reservists.

At the UN, the Security Council called for an end to all violence in Gaza, including rocket attacks from Gaza.

Israel says militants have fired 110 rockets into Israel since Saturday.

See a detailed map of the area

The air strikes were launched on Saturday against Hamas targets in the densely-populated coastal territory, less than a week after the expiry of a six-month-long ceasefire deal with the militant group.

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Israel hit targets in all Gaza's main towns, including Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.

More than 210 targets were hit in the first 24 hours of what Israel says could be a lengthy military operation.

"Israel will continue until we have a new security environment in the south, when the population there will not longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages," said government spokesman Mark Regev.

The high numbers of casualties made Saturday the single deadliest day in the Gaza Strip since Israel's occupation of the territory in 1967, analysts said, although no independent confirmation is available of the numbers killed.

Border confusion

Most of those killed were policemen in the Hamas militant movement, which controls Gaza, but officials said women and children also died.

The head of Gaza's police was among those killed.

Up to 700 others were wounded as missiles struck security compounds and militant bases, the officials added.

Israel has permanent military positions on alert outside Gaza

The main hospital in Gaza City is reportedly struggling to cope, and Egypt has opened its border with Gaza at Rafah to let the injured seek treatment there.

But the Egyptian foreign minister has accused Hamas of not allowing injured Palestinians to leave Gaza to seek treatment, even though much-needed medical supplies are waiting at the nearby El-Arish airport.

In Israel, one person was killed, in the town of Netivot, some 20km (12 miles) east of Gaza, while there were reports of several Qassam rocket strikes early on Sunday.

Rockets landed in Ashdod, Israel's largest southern city - some 38km (23 miles) from Gaza - the deepest they have ever struck inside Israel, Israeli media said. No injuries were reported.

A Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli fire in the north of the West Bank during protests against the raids, medics said.

In Gaza, Palestinian officials said two people died when a mosque was hit on Saturday night.

A BBC journalist in Gaza City said a Hamas-run security and prison compound was hit by at least three missiles on Sunday morning. Hamas said all of its security compounds in the strip were destroyed on Saturday.

'Time for fighting'

At the UN, the Security Council ended emergency talks with a call for an end to hostilities, speaking of "serious concern" at the escalation of the situation in Gaza.

A resident describes the attacks in Gaza

US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad suggested Hamas held the key to restoring calm.

"We believe the way forward from here is for rocket attacks against Israel to stop, for all violence to end," he said.

He was implicitly backed up from Cairo by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - whose Fatah faction is a bitter rival of Hamas.

"We could have avoided what happened," Mr Abbas said, saying the Islamist group should have renewed the ceasefire before it lapsed.

The air raids came days after the truce expired and as Israel prepares for a general election in February.

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Defence Minister Ehud Barak has explained the operation in stark terms, saying "the time has come to fight".

In response the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, called for a new intifada, or uprising, against Israel, while the movement's Gaza leader, Ismail Haniya, called the attack an "ugly massacre".

International reaction to the bombing has been dominated by calls for restraint.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Middle East envoy Tony Blair and the French EU presidency all called for a ceasefire.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak defends Gaza strike

The Israel-Hamas truce was regularly under strain and was allowed to lapse when it expired this month.

Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire, saying it had not respected its terms, including the lifting of the blockade under which little more than humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza.

Israel said it initially began easing the blockade, but this was halted when Hamas failed to fulfil what Israel says were agreed conditions, including ending all rocket fire and halting weapons smuggling.

From 1967 Israel's military occupied the Gaza Strip and Jewish settlers built communities within the territory. Israel withdrew in 2005 but has maintained control of Gaza's borders.