Israel on alert as Hamas threatens revenge killings

Israel went on heightened alert yesterday after the militant Islamic movement Hamas vowed to kill cabinet ministers.

The pledge follows the assassination on Saturday of Ibrahim Maqadmeh, a Hamas strategist who has been blamed by Israel for the deaths of at least 28 of its citizens.

Security was tightened around the homes of Shaul Mofaz, the Defence Minister, Gideon Ezra, a retired deputy chief of the Shin Bet security service and minister without portfolio for the ruling Likud party, and Ehud Barak, a former Labour prime minister. They live in Kochav Yair, by the West Bank border, two miles north of the Palestinian town of Qalqilyah.

Mr Mofaz said that the Hamas threat would not deter Israel from further strikes. "Hitting terrorist leaders is our consistent policy," he told Yedioth Ahronoth, a daily newspaper. "Our goal is to fight aggressively against terrorism, with the emphasis on Hamas in the Gaza Strip."

He added: "Israel will put its hands on everyone who is involved in terror, anyone who dispatches terrorists to kill innocent Israelis." Mr Maqadmeh, 53, a dentist, was killed when two Israeli helicopter gunships hit his car with four missiles as it drove through Gaza City. Three other Hamas passengers were also killed. Israel said Mr Maqadmehwas commander of the group's military wing in Gaza.

The initial response from Hamas yesterday was to fire four Kassam rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot and six at an army camp near Rafah on the Egyptian border. No Israeli casualties were reported. Israeli tanks reoccupied northern Gaza to keep the rockets at bay.

Clashes continued yesterday near an army checkpoint at Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Palestinian sources reported one Palestinian shot dead. An Israeli military spokesman said Palestinians throwing stones were constantly harassing the guards there.

On the West Bank, army engineers demolished the Hebron homes of three Hamas militants who attacked Israeli civilian targets last week. They were Sufian Charaz, who shot dead a rabbi and his wife on Friday night in the Kiryat Arba settlement before being gunned down by Israeli soldiers; Hazan Qwasama, who was killed while trying to infiltrate another Hebron hills settlement on the same night; and Mahmoud Qwasama, a 21-year-old computer student who killed 16 passengers when he blew himself up on a bus in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa on Wednesday.

On the political front, Israel gave a cautious welcome yesterday to Yasser Arafat's nomination of Mahmoud Abbas, 68, as the first Palestinian Prime Minister. Also known as Abu Mazen, he is Mr Arafat's deputy at the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Mr Abbas was one of the Palestinian team that negotiated the Oslo agreement with Israel in 1993. More recently, he has publicly blamed the armed intifada for "the complete destruction of everything we built" and called for a return to the negotiating table.

"Israel is waiting to see what powers the Palestinian Prime Minister will receive," Mr Mofaz said yesterday. "If it becomes evident that he has powers and takes action to end terrorism and it isn't another Arafat trick, this could be the beginning of a change."

A commentator forMa'ariv, a daily newspaper, said that Mr Abbas's appointment could prove a watershed. "Abu Mazen is an individual with backbone, a leader who did not hesitate to speak out against the intifada and against the terrorism that he felt was leading the Palestinians nowhere. He disregarded Arafat and met with Israeli leaders, before whom he voiced precisely the same opinions," Amir Rappaport wrote.