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Palestinian PM-designate Not Immune From Assassination: Mofaz
A few fours after an Israeli strike killed five Palestinians, including three boys, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Tuesday, March7 , that Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniya, a senior Hamas leader, is not immune from Israel's policy of targeted assassinations.
"No one there is immune, not just Ismail Haniya," Mofaz told the Israeli Army Radio in response to a question about whether Israel regarded the premier-designate as a target for assassination, Reuters reported.
Haniya has been tasked by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form the new government following Hamas's landslide election victory.
Mofaz said there will be no question of political or non-political leadership once Hamas carries out attacks against Israeli targets.
"This would be a terrorist leadership, and therefore none of its members would be immune."
No attacks were carried out by Hamas against Israel over the past12 months under a truce agreement, that officially expired with the beginning of2006 .
Palestinian resistance factions observed a de facto truce since Abbas was elected in January,2005 , an agreement that was cemented at talks brokered by Egypt in March of the same year.
The shaky truce has repeatedly been put to the test by Israeli assassinations of resistance activists and incessant attacks.
Targeted Killings
Mofaz vowed to continue the targeted assassination of Palestinian activists.
"This policy is just and it will be pursued," he said, adding that the strikes were carried out with "surgical precision."
Mofaz said he was "sorry" that an air strike targeting two Islamic Jihad activists in Gaza on Monday, March6 , killed Palestinian civilians.
"But if you weigh the advantages and disadvantages (of targeted killings), you can see that when we acted against Hamas, the situation changed. For this to work with Jihad, we need a little bit of patience," he claimed.
Israeli helicopters had assassinated a number of top Hamas leaders, including its founder, chair-wheeled Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Azizi al-Rantissi, in2004 .
Witnesses said an eight-year-old boy was killed while standing close to the car of the Jihad activists.
Two other boys, aged 14 and15 , also died in the Israeli strike, said a hospital official.
The killings bring to4 , 976the number of people killed since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in2000 , mostly Palestinian.
"State Terrorism"
Hamas accused Israel of pursuing a policy of state terrorism against the Palestinian people.
"These comments by the Israeli defense minister are an illustration of state terrorism," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Hamas does not fear these threats and blackmail. We are committed to the defense of our rights and our people whatever the price."
The UN Middle East peace envoy, Alvaro de Soto, also blasted Israel's extra-judicial killings of the Palestinians.
"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, particularly from rocket attacks, I call on the Israeli military authorities to desist from extra-judicial killings and show maximum restraint at this delicate time."
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-03/07/article02.shtml
Haniya has been tasked by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form the new government following Hamas's landslide election victory.
Mofaz said there will be no question of political or non-political leadership once Hamas carries out attacks against Israeli targets.
"This would be a terrorist leadership, and therefore none of its members would be immune."
No attacks were carried out by Hamas against Israel over the past12 months under a truce agreement, that officially expired with the beginning of2006 .
Palestinian resistance factions observed a de facto truce since Abbas was elected in January,2005 , an agreement that was cemented at talks brokered by Egypt in March of the same year.
The shaky truce has repeatedly been put to the test by Israeli assassinations of resistance activists and incessant attacks.
Targeted Killings
Mofaz vowed to continue the targeted assassination of Palestinian activists.
"This policy is just and it will be pursued," he said, adding that the strikes were carried out with "surgical precision."
Mofaz said he was "sorry" that an air strike targeting two Islamic Jihad activists in Gaza on Monday, March6 , killed Palestinian civilians.
"But if you weigh the advantages and disadvantages (of targeted killings), you can see that when we acted against Hamas, the situation changed. For this to work with Jihad, we need a little bit of patience," he claimed.
Israeli helicopters had assassinated a number of top Hamas leaders, including its founder, chair-wheeled Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Azizi al-Rantissi, in2004 .
Witnesses said an eight-year-old boy was killed while standing close to the car of the Jihad activists.
Two other boys, aged 14 and15 , also died in the Israeli strike, said a hospital official.
The killings bring to4 , 976the number of people killed since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in2000 , mostly Palestinian.
"State Terrorism"
Hamas accused Israel of pursuing a policy of state terrorism against the Palestinian people.
"These comments by the Israeli defense minister are an illustration of state terrorism," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Hamas does not fear these threats and blackmail. We are committed to the defense of our rights and our people whatever the price."
The UN Middle East peace envoy, Alvaro de Soto, also blasted Israel's extra-judicial killings of the Palestinians.
"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, particularly from rocket attacks, I call on the Israeli military authorities to desist from extra-judicial killings and show maximum restraint at this delicate time."
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-03/07/article02.shtml
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IMC Network
16:56 Mar 07, '06 / 7 Adar 5766
By Hillel Fendel
Two leading Islamic Jihad terrorist leaders were killed in a surgical Israel Air Force strike in Gaza Monday afternoon. Defense Minister Mofaz says that no one who engages in terror will be immune.
The killed terrorists, Ashraf Shaluf and Monair Sukir, were responsible for launching Kassam rockets at Israeli targets. Three other bystanders were also killed in the attack, which took place in the Saja'iye neighborhood of Gaza.
Islamic Jihad, as expected, has threatened retaliation with additional rockets towards Ashkelon.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz said today that Ismail Haniye, the man designated to preside as prime minister over the soon-to-be-formed Hamas government, is also not immune from an IDF targeted killing. "No one who is involved in terrorism, not even Haniye and other Hamas leaders, will be safe from this policy of ours," Mofaz told Army Radio today.
Mofaz said that the targeted-killing policy proved itself in impeding Hamas terror, "and it will be the same with Islamic Jihad. We just need some patience."
Meanwhile, tensions in Gaza were high yesterday as Hamas took advantage of its parliamentary majority to revoke Fatah legislation granting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) special privileges.
Dozens of armed Fatah members marched on the Hamas parliament building in Gaza, shooting in the air. They were specifically protesting the sacking of a Fatah member as the director-general of the legislature, in favor of a Hamas member.
Fatah lawmakers also walked out of the parliamentary session after Hamas voted to revoke Abu Mazen's right to appoint judges without the parliament's approval.
@%<
"What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.
Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.
When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This is called "divine manipulation of the threads." It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.
Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy. Hence it is that which none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies."
Of course, its only EEEEVVVUUULLLL when Israel does it.....