Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel's Livni vows to topple Hamas if elected prime minister
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni vowed on Sunday to end Hamas's rule in the Gaza Strip if she is elected prime minister in a February election.
- Reuters
- Published: 16:30 December 21, 2008
- Mohammad for Mideast peace talks
- Palestinian president arrives in Russia
- Boat carrying activists arrives in Gaza
- Gaza truce recedes as rockets hit Israel
- Palestinian killed in Gaza air raid
- Netanyahu to build peace through Palestinian prosperity
- Falk calls upon ICC to indict Israel
- Don't forget Palestine peace talks
Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni vowed on Sunday to end Hamas's rule in the Gaza Strip if she is elected prime minister in a February election.
"The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza," Livni told members of her centrist Kadima party.
"The means for doing this should be military, economic and diplomatic."
Meanwhile, Israel's prime minister brushed aside calls for an immediate large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip in response to an escalation of cross-border rocket fire after a truce expired.
Palestinian fighters have fired more than 50 makeshift rockets and mortar shells at Israel since a six-month-old Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas ended on Friday. Over the weekend, one Palestinian commander was killed in an Israeli air attack and at least one person in southern Israel was injured by shrapnel from a mortar shell.
Severe action
Related Links
Unless Hamas stopped the salvoes, Israeli cabinet minister Isaac Herzog said the army would have no choice but to take "severe action," though he did not say what that might entail.
"It needs to be clear. A strike in Gaza will come, and it will be hard and painful," Herzog said.
But outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggested a more measured approach for now, underscoring the difficult choices facing the government in the run-up to a February 10 election.
The rocket fire has increased pressure on Olmert and his government to launch a major operation that could result in heavy casualties on both sides.
The right-wing Likud party of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Olmert and his government of failing to protect Israeli civilians bordering the Gaza Strip.
More from Palestinian Territories
More from Region
News Editor's choice
-
Kuwait condemns Houla massacre
Arab League urged to put end to oppression of Syrian people
-
Road crashes main cause of child death in UAE
Death rate among children in car accidents in the UAE is three times higher than global average
-
Last minute ID rush is on
Expatriates in Dubai have thronged typing centres and Emirates ID registration offices to meet the May 31 registration deadline
